


Have We Met Before?

by Insatiables (orphan_account)



Category: Fear the Walking Dead (TV), Multi-Fandom, The 100 (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Apocalypse, Animal Death, Attempted Murder, Bisexual Character, Character Death, Crossover, Eventual Smut, F/F, Falling In Love, Fluff and Angst, Homophobia, Homophobic Language, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Lesbian Character, Love/Hate, M/M, Panic Attacks, Sexual Content, Slow Burn, Threats of Rape/Non-Con, Zombies, lexark
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-03-09
Updated: 2016-11-01
Packaged: 2018-05-25 16:47:20
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 45
Words: 150,508
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6203116
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/Insatiables
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The group needs to get off Strand's ship for a supply run. When they are circled by the dead, they need to split up and Alicia ends up alone. Except that she is not.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hi y'all!
> 
> I'm still very mad about 307, yup... that's why I decided to cope with writing a story about Alicia Clark and Elyza Lex, basically the reincarnation of Clarke and Lexa, but in the Fear the Walking Dead world. If you haven't watched FTWD yet, there will be SPOILERS. 
> 
> This is not beta-ed, it's 3:35 am. English is my second language, be easy on me. Comments & kudos are always appreciated, critical or not.

 

 

 

There was a hint of hope when the group finally got to Strand’s ship, lovingly called Abigail by its owner. Somehow, they were safe on the water; the dead couldn’t swim. They had a few altercations with other survivors – that managed to survive all those three months in a way or another. They were trying to claim the ship as theirs, but Strand wouldn’t let them take it. Everyone was uncertain of his previous job, but they all let him dictate things on board, because he had _guns_ and even Travis seemed at least a little bit scared by the curious man – he was clearly affected by his ex-wife’s death.

 

In general, everything went fine for about three or four weeks after they got on the ship. There was enough food to be comfortable for that time, but they knew that they would eventually have to get down on the ground to collect food before they starved. It was mostly Daniel and Travis going out for the supply runs, the Salvadoran man knowing how to handle a gun and the former teacher having the need to get out there and help his family.

 

After getting Nick back from the hospital, Ofelia had been shot by her secret lover in revenge of getting awfully tortured by Daniel, but she thankfully made it out alive because of Liza. She had a hard time recovering from the bullet wound, but eventually begun to help everyone with chores and making food.

 

Nick had been having a hard time on the ship, always insisting to join Daniel and Travis on the supply runs, claiming that staying put was driving him crazy and that he needed to get off the damn boat. Madison had solemnly refused, knowing that her son would only be looking for drugs outside. She was trying her best to contain his addiction, but the mix of his seasickness and the lack of drug in Nick’s system was having effects on his temper and everyone was suffering from his anger outbursts. Even Madison hated the thought of getting outside to get him drugs, even medicaments, but she had come to terms with the idea that she will have to do it sooner or later.

 

Christopher, Alicia and Ofelia had gotten closer too since there was nothing more to do than talk with each other, preferring to hang around each other than being supervised by the adults all the time. They all had a hard time on the boat; both Chris’s and Ofelia’s mothers were dead, at around the same time, which of course an effect on their mood. Alicia had to undergo her older brother’s outbursts and see that he didn’t get in trouble. Nick’s intentions were clear, he needed his drugs, and Alicia believed that he would do anything to get them, even if it meant to jump off the ship in the middle of the night. She couldn’t stop looking after him even if all she wanted was to ignore him.  

 

Weeks passed and everyone seemed to be on the edge. They all had good reasons, though: it was the end of the world and people around them, their relatives, their friends, they were all dying. It was hard enough to face the dead ones, but dealing with the living ones was another thing. Now, it was all about survival and everyone had their own priorities in mind; Travis keeps wanting to save everyone, Madison knows that they’ll have to face their fears to stay alive, Daniel says the most compassionate will die first, Nick wants his drugs, Ofelia tries to put some reason in her father’s head, Strand genuinely believes that they’ll survive the apocalypse if they stay on his boat, Christopher desires to be considered an adult by his father and Alicia knows that they can’t save anyone and keeps being the rebellious young woman that she is meant to be.

 

One evening, Madison asked all of them to reunite over a meal to have a serious talk. Everyone huffed and groaned, especially the younger ones, but they all sat together and listened to her. “We’re running low on food.” She starts, giving them a serious glare. “We won’t survive another week, even if we make rations.”

 

“Daniel and I could always try to scavenge a grocery store or a convenience store.” Travis says, putting a hand on his fiancée’s shoulder.

 

“We need more than what you can put in two backpacks.” She continues. “At this pace, you should make a few round-trips, but we can’t risk that, it’s too dangerous out there.”

 

Ofelia interrupts the couple. “I can go with them.”

 

“You are still recovering from your injury, I will not let you leave this boat, _Ofelia_.” Her father says warningly. The man had almost lost his daughter in that hospital, it was understandable that he didn’t want to let her wander in public places where anything could happen to her.

 

They look at each other for a moment, the tension between them palpable, before Christopher addresses Travis. “I want to help, dad.” His father scowls, about to object. “I’ll be with you, I can run fast and I know how to defend myself. Come on, we need this, otherwise we’ll starve.”

 

“The adults should be taking care of this, not you.” Travis simply states, his gaze moving to Strand.

 

Victor Strand huffs. “This is my ship, I will not step foot on the ground.” He says. “Plus, you are all my guests here.”

 

Nick snorts and shakes his head. “We saved your ass in the hospital.”

 

“That is exactly why I brought you here; you are safe.” The African-American man continues, a smile on his lips.

 

“I believe that we aren’t safe anywhere.” Alicia quirks her eyebrows, looking at them with an unfastened glare.

 

“Still, I brought everyone here and let you eat my food. I did my part, I will not participate on the supply runs.” Seriousness is written all over his face. “If anyone objects to my decision, I will gladly invite you to get off my ship.”

 

“We don’t need to come to this, right?” Madison pursues, bringing her hands in the air. “I know that this is a complicated situation, but we can get through this. Strand, I can’t thank you enough for letting us on your boat.”

 

“I will go on as many supplies runs as it takes, but my son is not coming along.” Travis looks at Christopher and shakes his head.

 

“You always say that I don’t help enough and now that I want to help, you put me on the bench!” He retorts angrily at his father.

 

“Strand will stay here with Ofelia, Alicia, Nick and you.” Travis turns his head towards Madison, addressing to her. “If it’s fine with you, of course.”

 

“It was my idea in the first place.” The woman agrees.

 

Nick has to make his voice heard. “I want to come, please, this boat is making me sick!”

 

“We’ve been through this, Nick.” Madison shakes her head. “You’re not going outside.”

 

Alicia shots a cold glare at his brother, knowing that he will keep pushing their mother, trying to convince her. She knows that all Nick wants is to get outside and look for drugs, whatever their kind, just drugs, and this would compromise their goal and get someone hurt or worse, killed. They couldn’t let him unsupervised – he already search all the corners of the boat to satisfy his needs. Before he got his hand on anything, Alicia found the Ibuprofens, Tylenols, a whole other bunch of pills and threw it all overboard for his own sake.

 

Her brother catches her eyes and he adverts his look, thankfully getting the message to shut up. Alicia decides to give it a try. “I want to come too.”

 

“Honey, we will be fine us three out there.” Madison tries to reason her daughter.

 

“You said it yourself, we need people out there. Strand doesn’t want to come, he could always stay here with Ofelia, Nick and Chris.”

 

“If she goes, I go.” Travis’s son says.

 

“Yeah, me too.” Nick stands up, looking at Madison. “I can help too, I promise that I’ll listen to everything you say.”

 

“We’re eight, three can stay on the boat and five for the supply run.” Nick groans in frustration at his mother’s words. “Nick, someone has to stay and watch the boat.”

 

“If we are too many outside, it will draw attention. The dead will come for us.” Daniel points out. “The less sound we make, the better.”

 

“I think it’s settled, then.” Travis sighs. “Madison, Daniel, Chris and I will be on the supply run. Nick, Ofelia and Victor will stay on the ship. We’re leaving tomorrow at dawn.” His gaze alternates from Christopher to Alicia. “If you’re not ready, we’re leaving without you.”

 

“Understood.” His son says, while Alicia nods her consent.

 

 

They wake up the next morning to the sound of the alarm set on Alicia’s phone. That was one of the advantages of keeping her phone around and charged; they have the time. The disadvantages? Alicia could still read her last text messages, the last remaining evidence from her old boring life as a high school student. When she was alone, she often read conversations with her friends, wondering if they were fine on their own, but reminding herself a few moments later that they were probably dead by now. The thought makes her sad. Alicia often finds herself crying when she’s alone, hoping that this was only a dream. So far, her family and her had been lucky not to be killed by soldiers or devoured by the… infected.

 

It’s quite a luxurious ship they’re on, but there was not enough bed for everyone. Strand decided to not share his bedroom, but allowed them to move the couches to the living room for the adults to sleep on. The younger ones had to take the cushions from the sunbeds, in front of the boat, to prepare makeshift beds, otherwise they would sleep on the ground. From a lack of sheets and blankets, they could only sleep with their clothes, nothing else. Alicia hates that, but she rather have no bed, no sheets than be dead. It’s a fair compromise.

 

The alarm goes off and Chris groans, stirring besides her. By now, he’s probably regretting that he proposed to join the supply run. Alicia sighs, grabs her cellphone and stops the alarm. “Wake up, we’re leaving soon.” She tells him, sitting up. She undo’s her ponytail to make a messy bun.

 

He moves to a sitting position too and looks at her with sleepy eyes. “Whatever happens today, we’ll have each other’s back, right?”

 

“Don’t worry Chris. We’re not leaving for war, just for a supplies.” Alicia says back, rolling her eyes discreetly.

 

 

They get off from Strand’s ship with the barque and they rowed to the shore quietly. When they get off, making sure that the barque will not drift away with the currents, Travis elaborates the plan.

 

“First, we make sure that there’s no dead around; if there are, we kill them quickly and quietly. They’re drawn to the sound and we’re low on ammunition.” Travis says, looking at Daniel. “You all have a knife, don’t hesitate to use it. Aim for their head.”

 

“Alicia, Chris, if you can avoid them, do it.” Madison interrupts.

 

“We’ll separate in teams once we get to the grocery store. I’ll be with the kids, Daniel and Madison together.” He pauses for a few seconds. “We’re looking for food, but we can always take medical supplies, knifes, lighters, anything you would judge useful on the boat.”

 

“But remember that we can’t take everything.” The Salvadoran insists. “It will slow us down. We have to be ready to run at any time; if the dead are in group, they’re stronger and they can get us.”

 

“I want everyone to be careful today.” Alicia can feel her mother’s eyes on her and she adverts her gaze. “If by any chance you find a gun or ammunitions, take them. We never know, it could save our lives.”

 

“What happens if we come across people?” Chris asks them, curious.

 

Travis hesitates for a few seconds before answering. “I hope that we don’t, but if we do… I don’t know.”

 

“We don’t have enough food to accept anyone in the group.” Daniel scowls, crossing his arms on his chest. “We can’t trust anyone, they will want what they have, just like those soldiers did when they took our cars and supplies, at the hospital.”

 

“Daniel’s right, Travis.” Madison says, nodding.

 

Alicia doesn’t know what she will do if she came across someone alive. She’ll be relieved, in a certain way, that the members of their group are not the only ones alive on this continent. “What if they’re in trouble? Do we help them, at least?” She asks, looking at her stepfather.

 

Daniel is the one to answer. “No, we can’t allow ourselves to help people, not right now. That would be dangerous, we could get killed.”

 

“Let’s not leave anyone for dead.” Chris sighs. “If it were me in trouble, you’d do anything to save me, right Dad?”

 

“Of course I would. But if it’s too dangerous, we can’t risk our life for a stranger. It always depends of the situation.”

 

“Fine.”

  
“We should go, Travis.” Daniel says, looking at him. The older man had his gun in his hands, the cannon over his shoulder. “The faster we get there, the faster we’re back on the boat.” Travis nods at him. “The store is only a mile away.”

 

 

Walking to the store is without doubt the least scary part of the supply run. They look around, moving quietly, searching for an infected person that would want to kill them. They only came across one, since they were still walking close to the beach, and Daniel took care of it in a matter of seconds, sinking his knife in its head with force. The dead body slumped to the ground and everyone took a good look at it, even Alicia. It disgusted her more than it scared her, because all she could think was that this thing used to be human and now it was nothing like it. She adverted her gaze because seeing the hole Daniel did in the head was gave her nausea.

 

When the group enters the grocery store, it’s when they separate, Madison with Daniel, Travis and the teenagers. The store is very badly lit, since the only light is coming from the windows, the electricity being out for months. Alicia holds the knife in one hand, walking cautiously, just like Chris and Travis. Her stepfather is nervous about the whole situation, because this is a large grocery store and they’re running risks, bringing five of them here.

 

It’s silent, except for the noise of rats making their way around, feasting on the rotten food. It stinks a lot and Alicia can’t help but wrinkle her nose. At least, it’s the smell of food, not dead –or not so dead – bodies. 

 

Chris, walking behind her, somehow manages to kick something with his shoes and it resonates throughout the store. Everyone holds their breath and that’s when they hear the footsteps coming their way. An infected, rotting body coming their way. Travis looks uncertain for a few seconds, but he remembers to not hesitate to kill the thing. He does, plunging the knife right in its eye. The body falls on the ground with a thump and the three of them can hear that Madison and Daniel are struggling on their side.

 

Travis is the first one to make his way towards them, leaving his son and Alicia to follow behind. Chris mutters a “fuck” under his breath and grabs her hand, dragging them towards the rest of the group. The younger man clearly didn’t wanted to be left alone in this place, neither did Alicia.

 

The situation taken care of, they all look around and then at each other. “Everyone okay?” Travis asks quietly, crouching to wipe the blood off his knife on the infected’s clothes. Everyone nods in agreement. “I think it’s better if we stay together from now on.”

 

It wasn’t something that Alicia would argue against. They start making their way further in the store, starting to grab food and putting it in the backpacks. A few shelves fell on the ground and there’s glass debris around, making it difficult to walk without making any sound. Thankfully, no one comes after them as they make their way to another alley.

 

When they turn a corner, Alicia jumps when a hand tries to grab her arm. Before she understands what is happening, she finds herself laying on her back, head hitting the ground. There’s a _dead body_ over her and it’s trying to _eat_ her. Daniel pushes the infected off her and stabs it multiple times. There’s blood on her shirt and, for a moment, Alicia wonders if it’s hers.

 

It’s not, thankfully, and she is not hurt except from the swelling at the back of her head due to her fall. “Are you hurt?” Madison looks at her daughter, putting her hands on her shoulders.

 

“I’m fine Mom.” She reassures her, touching the back of her neck. She discreetly looks at her fingers and is relieved to see that there is no blood. She would have been in deep trouble otherwise. “Let’s go.”

 

Her leg hurts, because she had fallen on something hard, perhaps canned food, but she can walk without much difficulty.

 

“Let’s hurry up, it will draw more here.” Daniel says, starting to pack more food in his backpack.

 

They all get down to it, grabbing everything that they can. It makes a little too much noise for being unnoticed, now, but if they hurry up, they might be fine and avoid other dead ones. Alicia finds a box of tampons and almost screams in joy, because they were running low on that and they were three women in the group. She shoves it in her bag and keeps walking.

 

Madison decides that it’s time to leave the store before it gets ugly, telling that they could always scavenge beach houses on their way to the ship.

 

They walk rapidly, all hoping that they would get out without trouble, but they come in front of a group of dead making their way inside the grocery store, from where they got in. This is bad, because they haven’t explored the rest of the building and they have no idea where to get out. They could always break a window, but it wasn’t noiseless and they could hurt themselves too.

 

They’re a dozen coming their way, groaning and shuffling slowly. They might be slow, but their damage were fatal. They had to get out of this deathtrap and they had to be quick.

 

No time for thinking, they all start running as they see infected coming from behind them. They start running for the back of the store and thankfully in buildings like this, it was mandatory that they had an exit at the back. Travis smashes a door written ‘employees only’ on with his foot and they all get inside. The smell of a rotting body catches their noses and they see it laying the ground.

 

The corpse is half devoured, guts spilling out of its stomach. She would have probably vomited if she wasn’t fearing for her life. Daniel puts a knife in the head, not willing to risk any surprises.

 

They all see the backdoor open, leading to the parking lot out the back of the grocery store. They don’t think, they just run for it at the same time and it’s only when they’re in the parking lot that they realise the mistake.

 

The parking lot is full of dead bodies and their heads turns when they hear the footsteps. “Shit.” Travis says, not expecting this. “Come on, run!”

 

That’s what they do and Alicia follows them, running, even if her lungs are burning up. They are circling them and she thinks that, this time, this is it, this was the end. Travis, Daniel and Madison are pushing infected and staking their skull with their knives. Chris manages to fight one off, but he almost trips and Alicia holds him.

 

A dead woman is about to close her hands on Alicia’s shoulder when a horn resound somewhere near them. The distraction lets her the time to kill it permanently. Most of the infected are drawn to the sound and forget their interest on them, but everyone knows it’s a matter of time. They need to escape now.

 

They get out of the middle of the parking lot, where most of the rotting bodies were, going the exact opposite way of the sound. They push a few infected, but some fall on the ground, trying to grab their legs and feet, and that’s when the thing that Alicia feared the most happens: they part away and she has no choice but run in a different direction from the rest of the group.

 

She finds herself alone, running anywhere, hoping that she could find a place safe enough before getting back to her group. She doesn’t know which direction they went, but she knows that they’ll eventually try to find her again, no matter what.

 

Her heart is racing when she catches strands of blonde hair coming her way, thinking that it’s her mother rescuing her.

 

But it isn’t. It’s a woman about her age, slightly shorter than her, with the most incredulous facepaint she’s ever seen. No but really, why would anyone bother covering their face in a zombie apocalypse, seriously?

 

“Come with me!” The woman shouts with an evident Australian accent. She grabs her arm and Alicia lets the stranger drag her, not knowing where to go at all. At least, the blonde seemed confident of where they could hide.

 

She slams the door of a house open and holds two guns in the air. When she shoots, the sound startles Alicia, but she keeps following when she sees the now permanently dead body on the ground.

 

They keep running, getting in the backyard, jumping the fence – Alicia had to admit that she needed help to get through the fence. Then they got to another house and get inside. The blonde locks the door and lowers the blinds, then move to the front to look from the windows. There were several infected, but they didn’t seem to chase them anymore. They were safe for now.

 

The stranger walks upstairs and Alicia follows her, because there’s nothing much to do and she wants to know the name of the woman who just saved her – and probably saved her group too. “The horn, was that was you?” Alicia asks, crossing her arms on her chest.

 

The blonde stops and turn around, looking at her. A smug smirk appears on her lips. “Yes, awesome move, right?” She winks and Alicia is left speechless, having no idea how to answer to something like that. They were in a world where the majority of the population was dead and the girl didn’t bat an eye.

 

“Who are you?” Alicia asks, muttering.

 

“Elyza Lex at your service, munchkin.” The blonde continues smirking, but frowns. “Have we met before?”


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alicia gets to know the stranger that saved her life. Elyza comes up with an idea to find Alicia's family and some stuff happens. Poor Chris gets hurt because he's never been much of an athletic kid.

Alicia couldn’t process this, in about fifteen minutes everything went from fine to running for your life. That was the new world, full of death and fears. She often wonders why they try to survive in all this bullshit because they probably end up eaten and infected. She was saved by a stranger when a few seconds later she would have been bitten. She owed this Elyza Lex person her life.

 

The blonde was rather mysterious with all the facepaint on and her leather jacket. Alicia couldn’t believe that the other girl was real and wasted bullets to save a total stranger. There are some people in this world that she doesn’t understand and this is one.

 

Elyza makes her way upstairs and Alicia, intrigued, can’t help but follow her. They end up in a bedroom and Alicia immediately looks through the windows, trying to figure out where her family and friends ran off. She was scared, because splitting apart was dangerous with the infected around, even if they had no choice. She would have to get out there and try to find them before dark. The blonde stays quiet, looking her while removing her leather jacket. Alicia hates when people stare at them without any reason, so she just shoots a glare at Elyza, who smirks at the brunette’s evident annoyance.

 

“What, do you think this is funny?” Alicia snarls, crossing her hands on her chest.

 

Elyza rolls her eyes. “Of course not, it’s just that it’s hard to take you seriously when you have all that blood on your shirt.”

 

“It’s not mine.” Alicia retorts, turning her back on Elyza, inspecting the sky for any signals from her group. She knew that Travis would attempt anything to get her back to Strand’s ship alive, if they didn’t think that she was dead in the first place.

 

“I figured.” Elyza counters, taking out her guns to inspect them. “I’m sorry that I couldn’t get in the grocery store to help you guys out, they were everywhere.”

 

“You knew we were in there?” She asks, turning her head to see the blonde.

 

She nods, sitting on the bed, removing her boots. “Yes, I saw you and the others getting inside.” She lets out a long sigh and an exaggerated moan. “Oh, this feels good.”

 

“Why did you help me?”

 

“I couldn’t let them devour your pretty face, you know.” And there her smirk appears again. “There’s not a lot of us alive, I think we need to support each other.”

 

Alicia understands her point of view, but it sometimes was better to go by the motto every man for himself. At some point, it was all about surviving. The brunette rapidly gets lost in her thoughts, thinking about finding a way to get back to her people, when Elyza clears her throat, holding a t-shirt in front of them. Alicia didn’t know when the blonde had moved, because she didn’t payed attention.

 

“You should get rid of your bloody clothes, they stink.” She looks at her intensively and Alicia recognizes a certain familiarity in her traits, even though they don’t know each other. She is pretty sure that she would have remembered seeing a pretty face like the blonde’s.

 

She picks up the piece of clothing from Elyza’s hands, an unfazed expression on her face. She turns her back on the other young woman, removes the plaid shirt attached around her hips and the t-shirt. She was never one to hide when it comes to changing from clothes; she was comfortable in her body and bras were, according to her, just like a bikini top. Yet, she can almost feel Elyza’s eyes on her back, watching her undress, and she’s not sure if she’s more intimidated by her or the rotten bodies that just tried to eat her.

 

Alicia puts the clean t-shirt and turns to see the blonde that haven’t moved a centimeter. “I have to say, my clothes looks good on you.” Elyza says with a smug grin. Alicia wasn’t sure if the other teenager was trying to flirt with her or if it was the lack of human interactions that made her like this. Either way, she rolls her eyes in annoyance.

 

“I need to get back to my family.” She says, running a hand through her hair. When she touches the back of her head, it hurts a bit. She didn’t have the time to check on that while running away from the grocery store. The area where she hit her head was swelling.

 

Elyza rapidly caught up on that. “You’re hurt.” She states, moving closer to the younger brunette. “What happened?”

 

“I got surprized by one of those things and I fell on my back.” Alicia explains, taking a step back. She doesn’t want this stranger to look at her, she didn’t need anyone to judge if she is fine or not. “I’m fine, it’s just a bit painful.”

 

“If you say so.”

 

Alicia keeps glancing through the windows, hoping that her group would be looking for her. There’s a few dead ones walking aimlessly in the streets and she knows that Travis wouldn’t walk directly out on the open, not wanting to risk drawing attention to them – just like what happened in the grocery store. Alicia had no idea if everyone was still alive in her group. The idea of losing one more person after Matt, her boyfriend, seemed to be too difficult to handle. She had seen Eliza’s lifeless body on the beach and she had a hard time dealing with this, just as much as Chris. If anyone died and it was because of her, because she had to split with them, she would never forgive herself for that.

 

“You think way too loud.” Elyza is back on the bed, still looking at her.

 

“I need to get back to my group, they’re probably trying to find me.” Alicia closes her eyes and lets out a sigh. “It was supposed to be just a run for supplies.”

 

“It can turn out nasty if you pick up large stores like these. I wouldn’t recommend them at all.” Elyza grabs her guns and the corners of her mouth twitches in a smile.

 

“Are you alone?”

 

“You mean, if I’m single? Yes.” Alicia almost hits her own forehead with the palm of her hand. Elyza lets out a chuckle and finally gives the right answer. “I was alone even before this all went crazy; I’m from Australia, my parents and brother was still there when I came to LA.” She lets out a sigh. “I don’t think I could make it to there, so… I suppose they’re dead by now.”

 

She had been thankful to have Nick and her mother alive, along with Travis and his son, Daniel and Ofelia. Even though they were not all family, they became closer after a few weeks on Strand’s ship. “That sucks.” Alicia says, not knowing how to answer to that, since she is not the kind of girl that says sorry for nothing.

 

“What about you?”

 

“Well, we are only a few people but we all stick together.” She answers, looking back at the blonde.

 

“No, I mean… are you single?”

 

She turns her head to the window and shakes her head, not believing that the blonde was openly flirting with her when the apocalypse barely just happened. Alicia can still feel her cheeks heating up, because it somehow flattered her. “I wasn’t until all of this happened. He got bit and we had to leave him.” She swallows with difficulty. “He’s probably an undead too by now.”

 

“Okay.” She gets up from the bed and eyes Alicia. “Do you want to get out there and find your group now?”

 

“You want to help me?” She replies, confused.

 

“Of course I do.” Elyza shrugs. “Look, I don’t want anything else in return, if that’s what you’re asking yourself. I don’t necessarily want to be a part of your group.”

 

“It’s not that I don’t want you to join us, it’s just that… we have some issues right now. We’re low on food and my brother is a drug addict. We’re having a hard time right now.” Alicia concedes, looking down at the floor. She didn’t mean to overshare with Elyza, she just had to tell her why she didn’t wanted her to become a part of their group. Travis would probably scold her for bringing someone else on the ship – and she didn’t know Strand’s opinion, but she didn’t wanted to risk knowing it. “Plus, I’m not the one making the decisions.”

 

“Its fine, I just want to get you to your family. Not missing a few pieces too.” Elyza smiles and puts her boots on again, muttering to herself: “Ah fuck, I’m so going to have blisters on the feet.”

 

“And you don’t expect anything at all from helping me?”

 

“No, nothing at all.” She puts her guns in their holsters. “Is it too hard to believe that I, as a human being, genuinely want to help you?”

 

“Kinda.” Alicia replies. There has to be something wrong in her story, after all.

 

“Well, I could always take back my offer and let you find them by yourself.” Elyza winks at her, a growing smile on her lips. “You don’t have any firepower and you obviously don’t know how to fight them.”

 

“I’m not refusing your help, it’s just seems wrong according to the situation. We had a few altercations with a few other smaller groups and I don’t want any trouble, that’s it.” Alicia explains to her.

 

“Okay then, we should go.” She takes her own backpack on the floor, Alicia doing the same thing. She stops and looks at the brunette for a few intense seconds. “Will you let me look around for a minute, see if I can find something interesting?”

 

“Sure, I’ll just stay… here, I guess.” She agrees. Alicia thinks that she couldn’t refuse this to Elyza, since the blonde was helping her without asking for anything.

 

After disappearing, the brunette starts getting anxious. What if Elyza had decided to leave her and brought the dead inside the house? What if it was too late and everyone, Travis, Daniel, her mom, Chris, they were all dead?

 

She jumps two feet from the ground when someone clears their throat behind her. Turning her head, she sees Elyza with her signature smirk on her lips. She looks all proud of herself, brandishing something under Alicia’s nose.

 

“Look what I found!” Alicia could compare Elyza to a child having their candies. “A shotgun!”

 

“And here I thought that you had enough deadly weapons. Stop waving it under my nose.” The brunette retorts.

 

“Fine, we can go now.” She takes one of her pistols from the back of her jeans. Alicia’s mind has a hard time to forget where the cannon had been. Elyza holds the gun in front of her, insisting. “Take it, you could always need it out there.”

 

“But I don’t know how to use that!” She complains, taking the weapon. It’s heavier than what she expected. On the handle, there’s the initials EL carved.

 

“Its fine, let me teach you.” She her other pistol, a concentrated expression, and begins explaining things to Alicia. “Okay, so this one is an automatic handgun. There are not a lot of things you have to remember; first, before shooting, always remember to keep your finger off the trigger. Secondly, always think about removing the safety button. Otherwise, you won’t shoot anything and end up dead.” She shows Alicia, flicking her own thumb over a button on the side of the weapon. “Once the safety is removed, you can fire without a problem. There will always be a bullet ready in the chamber, so you have to be careful at what you shoot at.”

 

“How many bullets?” Alicia wonders.

 

“Twelve, which I know is not enough. If you need to use the handgun, which I beg you to do only in last resort, you have to count the bullets.”

 

The brunette nods, understanding where Elyza was going in her explanation. “And that’s when you tell me not to waste any bullets?”

 

She lets out a laugh. “Yes, pretty much. It’s not like I can do them myself.” She puts the safety back on her gun and Alicia does the same, not wanting to have an accident. “I would if I could.”

 

“Okay, thanks for showing me, Elyza.”

 

“My pleasure.” She holds her gaze for a moment and then asks: “Ready to save the world?”

 

“You play the superhero, I’ll just focus on getting my family back.”

 

“Sounds like a plan, sweet cheeks.”

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

After gathering their things, they make their way outside of the house, not bothering locking the door. Elyza leads the way and Alicia is impressed by her; the way she moves, her confident look and gun handling. The facepaint intrigues her a bit, because the blonde looks like she’s going to war against the undead, but she admits to herself that this looks badass for a girl that lived alone for a few months. That was some great survival instincts Elyza had. Plus, she saved Alicia’s ass. The brunette could not but respect her.

 

“Did you put the safety on?” The blonde asks, making her way through the backyard of a house, holding her pistol in one hand and a large knife with the other. The girl was armed for head to toes, really.

 

Alicia answers. “I did, don’t worry.”

 

“Good, because I don’t feel like taking a shot in the ass or the foot today.” She slowly stops walking and observes the area. “No walkers, good.” She crouches and drops her backpack on the ground, a smile on her face.

 

“Care to tell me what you’re doing?” Alicia wonders quietly, scanning the area. Now that she thinks about it, she would have rather stayed on the ship with Strand, Nick and Ofelia. She wouldn’t have been helpful, but she wouldn’t have put herself in danger.

 

“I’m gonna signal our position.”

 

She huffs in annoyance at her response. “Could you be less specific?”

 

Elyza looks up and smiles at Alicia. “I have three flare guns.” She pulls one of her bag and looks at the bright orange device. “I will shoot in the air in the opposite direction of where we’ll run off to.”

 

“What’s the point of signaling our position if we’re going to move?”

 

“Walkers are drawn to everything and anything; when they’ll see the light, they’ll come right at us and we’ll get cornered.” She explains. “I hope that the members of your group will figure this out.”

 

“What happens if they don’t?”

 

“I’d rather not think about that outcome.”

 

They look at each other for a few more seconds before Elyza puts her arm in the air, pointing the gun in the opposite direction of where they were about to run. Alicia realises that the blonde is waiting for her approval before pulling the trigger, so she nods and Elyza fires. They watch the distress signal and then start running.

 

The easiest path being the road, Elyza leads her there. It’s open and they can see the rotting dead bodies turning their heads towards them, slowly beginning to shuffle in their direction. They’re slow and the two young women can easily avoid them for a while.

 

Until there are five of them are blocking the road. Alicia is about to suggest to cut off in a street to lose them, but Elyza takes the matter into her hands. First she effortlessly pushes two of them with the flat of her boot, making them fall on their back without. She takes care of the third walker, a woman this time, plunging her knife in her eyes. Then she grabs the fourth one on the neck; the thing tries to bite her arm, but she’s faster and gives the same treatment.

 

The fifth dead makes its way to Alicia and she fights him off, knocking the side of his head with the handle of the gun, then sticking her hunting knife in its head too. She turns her head and sees Elyza finishing the two others, on the ground, trying to get up to eat them. “There’s more coming from the right.” The blonde says, pointing her chin in this direction.

 

They start running again and get past the horde within a few seconds. Alicia had never been in any sports team in college, but she was glad that she went to all her gym classes to get the best note. She wasn’t in the best shape, doubting that she could run for longer than five minutes straight, but she could always push herself a little more if it was a matter of live or death.

 

Elyza seems to have a great cardio. She eventually starts dragging Alicia, who is getting tired of running. They probably lost the walkers for a few minutes, but the blonde insists on maintaining the pace. “We’re going to the beach.” She tells her.

 

They could see the ocean from the street they were on. “Why, it’s… it’s in the open!” Alicia objects, cheeks red from the physical effort.

 

The blonde lets out a huff and explains herself. “We’re gonna leave them a message. If you have any better ideas, feel free to share.”

 

Alicia doesn’t have any other ideas in mind, but what Elyza wants to do seems pretty clever and she doesn’t argue against it. If Travis would look for a sign, it would probably be the beach, since it was the closest to the ship. They were less than a mile away from the barque.

 

They only stop running when they reach the beach. “What do you want to write in the sand?” Elyza asks her.

 

“I don’t know, we should say… Alicia alive?” She proposes.  
  
“Sounds okay. We could always walk in the sand, leaving our footsteps and find a place where we could see them coming?”

 

The brunette nods her agreement and they start walking. She doesn’t realises that she is thirsty until Elyza pulls out a bottle of water from her bag. She looks at the blonde taking a large sip of water and slips her tongue on her dry lips. “Want some?”

 

She doesn’t hesitate before drinking the refreshing liquid. She didn’t drank since they got a foot on the beach, which was hours ago. After that, they kept running and she even got knocked on the head. She deserved a drink. “Woah, I didn’t know you were thirsty.”

 

She moans, still taking large sips from the bottle, then stops. She gives the water bottle back to Elyza, who smirks at her. “What?” Alicia asks, wiping her mouth.

 

“You know, I’d never pick your for that kind of girl.” The brunettes quirks her eyebrows, in need of more explanation. Elyza continues to elaborate. “I thought that you would hate a little blood and be scared as hell from the walkers.”

 

Alicia rolls her eyes. “I do what needs to be done to survive, that’s all. If I must have a little blood on my hands, so be it.”

 

“Good. You understand how things work around here now.” Elyza looks behind them, just in case there were a few undead chasing them. Alicia does that too, but a smile creeps up her face when she sees that there isn’t anybody following them. “We would make a good team, you know.”

 

“I’m not one to play superheroes, sorry.” She shakes her head, giving the water bottle back to Elyza.

 

She takes a few sips of water too and looks at the horizon. “Come on! We wouldn’t be that bad; I’d be the hero, of course, and you’ll be the grumpy sidekick.”

 

“Do I need to remind you that the world ended like three months ago?” Alicia scoffs.

 

“No shit Sherlock!” She smiles and nudges the brunette’s shoulder gently. “I think that I will make it my personal mission to annoy you for the time that we’ll be together. That sounds nice, am I right, eh?”

 

“Never mind, the dead will not be the death of me, you will.”

 

“Don’t be such a kill joy!”

 

They kept bickering for a few minutes, not coming across anyone. Elyza slowly started rubbing off on Alicia, who couldn’t help her lips from lifting a little in the corners of her mouth. The blonde had a joyous attitude that reminded the younger woman when Nick wasn’t an addict yet; always seeing the good in things, making dumb jokes and gently annoying her. Alicia allowed Elyza to talk freely, not bothering getting offended by her jokes and assumptions, thinking that the blonde had probably not talked to anyone since a while.

 

They find a lighthouse farther on the beach and they decided to get in there, climb to the top and look around if they could see anyone coming their way. By the time they reach the top, Alicia is soon out of breath. There’s gladly nobody in there.

 

When she looks through the windows, her heart hurts a little. She can see the devastation of her beloved hometown; there had been some fires bringing down the houses and buildings. The streets were full of abandoned cars and trash, nothing like what she remembers. She still can’t believe that the world became like this in a finger snap.

 

“I hate to see a city that used to be so vibrant lifeless.” Elyza says, putting her forehead on the glass of window.

 

“I think it’s sad.” Alicia turns her back to lean on the window. “We used to have so much and now, every day is a fight for our lives.”

 

“Yeah, tell me about it.” The blonde shot a quick glance at her. “But we can see the good in this situation,” Elyza pauses for dramatic effect, looking Alicia dead in the eyes, smirking, “There are no rules now.”

 

“We can break windows without anyone reprimanding us?” Alicia proposes.

 

“Exactly! You can light a car on fire for a distraction.” The brunette looks at her, raising her eyebrows. “I mean, to distract the walkers while you run for your life, of course…”

 

Alicia is about to say a snarky remark but Elyza cuts her. “Oh, I know. We can make out in public places?”

 

Her cheeks tainted with a darker shade of pink, Alicia shakes her head. “Kind of dangerous, don’t you think? With all the dead around.”

 

“You just have to lock the doors.”

 

“That wouldn’t be so public, then.” She counters.

 

Elyza rolls her eyes and then smirks. “Okay, doors unlocked, it’ll make things a little spicy.”

 

“You’re unbelievable.” Alicia mutters under her breath, cracking a smile.

 

They keep talking about the advantages of living without rules for about thirty minutes. It’s the end of the afternoon and Alicia begins to become more aware of the time her and her family had been apart. Time with Elyza was flying by like crazy and, even though she wanted to slap that stupid smirk off her pretty face, she was starting to regret a little that they got to meet each other. Alicia would have to make her goodbyes, knowing that it would most likely be the last time she sees the blonde; either one or the other could die at any time.

 

“I see movement on the beach.” Elyza reports, squinting to see better. “Yaaaay, humans!”

 

Alicia looks on the beach and sees who the blonde is talking about. She can recognize Travis from this far. “It’s them, all of them.” No one seems hurt, but they definitely look tired.

 

“Oh shit, we have to help them!”

 

Elyza grabs her things, barely having time to put her backpack on her shoulder. Alicia is right behind, grabbing the gun and running in the stairs. She almost trips, but manages to stay stable. It takes at least half the time to get down the lighthouse then it did to get up fortunately.

 

As they exited they noticed the group was being followed by a horde of undead, this time bigger than what they had to deal in the parking lot of the grocery store. Probably forty, maybe more. In other words, they were all in deep shit up to the neck.

 

“Alicia!” Madison shouts at the moment she sees her daughter. She wants to run to her and hug her, but there are more important matters right now.

 

Elyza takes one of her flare gun and shoots in the middle of the horde of walkers. “It will slow them, but we have to keep running.”

 

Chris is the one that looks the most banged up. “Can’t… I can’t keep running… Dad!” Alicia can see that he has a wound on his abdomen, but she cannot say if it’s from a bite or something else. She hopes it’s not a bite, because he’ll end up just like his mother and Travis would never get through his son’s death.

 

Travis turns and puts his son’s arm over his shoulder. The young man winces in pain but keeps the pace, not quite running, but it’s better than walking.

 

Alicia is grateful that Elyza used her second flare gun to help her family. The blonde had done more things for her than anyone did in the last three months, except from the members of her group. “I’m gonna distract them.” Elyza yells to the group.

 

“What, no don’t do that Elyza!” Alicia shouts, grabbing her hand. “You could get killed!”

 

“You clearly underestimate me, princess.” She says to the brunette, squeezing her shoulder. “Hasta la vista!”

 

And then she starts running towards the horde, which is an incredibly stupid idea according to Alicia, who starts following her group. She turns her head at the right moment where Elyza changes direction, and shouts, successfully distracting all of the undead. Alicia has a moment when she _fears_ that the blonde would trip and fall, ending up on her ass and get eaten. This, of course, doesn’t happen, much to the brunette’s relief.

 

Most of the horde follows Elyza, but there’s less than a dozen that kept moving towards Alicia, Chris, Travis, Madison and Daniel. She hears the Salvadoran man swears a few times under his beard. “Chris, you can do this!” Madison encourages her fiancé’s son, getting on the other side of the teenager, mirroring Travis and putting his arm over her shoulder for support.

 

It takes ten minutes. Ten minutes that has Alicia worried for the stranger that saved her life twice in a day. She wanted to help but knew she couldn’t do much against so many dead around her. She wonders how Elyza manages to distract them – probably by running around in circles and annoying them.

 

They all let out a sigh of relief when they see the barque at the same place they left it. Chris is the first one getting on it, then Madison. Travis and Daniel push it so the cockle doesn’t touch the sand in the water. Alicia helps them and is the next one to get on the boat.

 

The walkers had gotten closer, but they were far enough to let Travis and Daniel the time they needed to get on the boat.

 

Alicia hears the gunshots before she sees from who they’re coming from, but she had suspected it was from Elyza. The blonde comes running towards the water and Alicia’s heart literally jumps in her chest when she sees an undead trying to grab her leather jacket.

 

There are more gunshots and the walkers chasing them turns their bodies towards the sound. Determined to fight them all, Elyza shoots again, the bullets hitting the undead’s heads with precision. “Aww fuck off mate!” She hears the blonde shout, kicking one infected that was getting too close, then ending it with a bullet in its head.

 

She swears again when her pistols runs out of ammunition and Alicia remembers that she still has her other one. She can’t quite throw it at her in the middle of her fight, it’s too dangerous. Everyone watches with mouth open when the girl uses the shotgun. Walker’s head are exploding and there are pieces of rotting brain falling everywhere. It’s not a very beautiful scene to watch. Alicia hears Chris throw up in the water and then try to blame it on his injury.

 

Eight walkers are now dead and Alicia takes care of the others with her knife, avoiding them, pushing one on the other and finishing it. The rest of the horde, the ones that distracted Elyza, are coming back towards her, groaning and shuffling. They’re a few meters too close when the blonde starts running towards the boat. She is slowed by the water, but so are the undead. At one point, she decides that swimming is her best option and she gets to the barque in no time.

 

Travis and Alicia help her get on while Daniel starts to row. Madison goes to put pressure on Chris’s wound. Elyza sits at Alicia’s sides, thanking Travis for his help, and releases a long sigh. “I think I deserve a nap.” She yawns and looks at everyone, specifically eyeing Chris. “Is that a bite?”

 

Alicia almost fears her mother’s answer. “No, he fell on a piece of glass while running from that horde. He lost a lot of blood.”

 

“My mother was a surgeon and taught me a few things. I know how to do stitches, would you let me take care of him?” She asks Madison, giving her a reassuring smile.

 

“Of course.” The older woman answers, keeping the pressure on Chris’s abdomen.

 

Elyza moves carefully, sitting in front of Alicia’s stepbrother. Madison removes her hands and the teenager lets out a cry of pain. “He’s lucky, it’s a very clean wound.” She indicates. “Alicia, do you mind looking inside my bag? Hand me the first-aid kit, please.”

 

The brunette doesn’t answer but she obliges, unzipping the backpack and looking inside it. Everything is soaked, but she quickly finds what she’s looking for. She gives it to Elyza, who starts working on Chris without any second. There are a few medical supplies, most of which were protected by plastic bags.

 

Fifteen minutes later, Chris is all stitched and patched up. “You’re lucky it wasn’t that deep, I don’t think there will be internal bleeding.” Elyza says, reaching for something in her first-aid kit. “I don’t have anything very strong for the pain, but here are some Tylenols, it’s better than nothing.”

 

Christ takes three pills and falls asleep against Madison’s shoulder in a position that shouldn’t even be comfortable to sleep. “What’s your name?” Travis asks, looking at the girl with a cornered smile.

 

“Elyza, sir.” She answers, holding out her hand for him to shake. Her facepaint is gone, mostly smudged, but it lets Alicia see how she looks without it. She is kind of beautiful, but she would only admit that to herself.

 

“I’m Travis. Thank you for helping us out and taking care of Chris.” He shakes her hand with a firm grip.

 

“It was no problem, sir.” She replies, returning a smile.

 

Alicia looks at Elyza, who takes place at her side again. Her clothes and hair are still dripping. “Let me introduce them to you.” The brunette tells her.  “Travis is Chris’s father. This is my Mother, Madison, and Daniel.”

 

“Nice to meet you all, I would have preferred to meet in other circumstances, but I’m very, very glad that you guys have that boat.” She sighs, closing her eyes for a few seconds. Alicia pinches her lips in attempt to stop a smile cracking on her lips. “If you don’t mind, I haven’t slept in two days and four hours, so… ”

 

Elyza leans her head on Alicia’s shoulder, surprising the brunette, but she stops moving. “If you drool on me, I’m throwing you overboard.” She whispers in the blonde girl’s ear.

 

“I’m wet enough, but thanks.” Elyza snorts at her own inappropriate comment and closes her eyes.

 

Everyone in the barque, except from Chris who was also sleeping, looked at the new addition in their group with a frown, and then moves along to see Alicia’s desperately annoyed expression. Daniel chuckled, whilst Travis and Madison simply looked at each other with a smirk.

 

 


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so I'm out of town for the weekend and this will be the last chapter until, probably, Tuesday. I wrote this in a car because I had time to kill, therefore the chapter (like the two previous) is not beta-ed. I'll find some time to do that next week.

For a second, when she wakes up, Elyza can’t quite remember where she is and with whom. She did not take a habit in falling asleep on a complete stranger’s shoulder, no. This time was different: she had been awake for two days and a few hours, which was not a sane things to do, according the scientists proving that the human body needed at least 8 hours of sleep for a day. Screw the statistics, those scientists clearly hadn’t faced a zombie apocalypse or anything similar to that.

 

Opening her eyes, she stirs a little while looking around. She didn’t recognize where she was, but her little finger was informing her that she was in the middle of the fucking Pacific Ocean. And with a bunch of strangers too. At least she was far, far away from the beach, where a horde of zombie was trying to eat her guts. The light of the sunset hurts her poor little eyes and she puts her arm in front of them. “Okay, so now this is when you tell me that I’ve been on vacation in Cuba all this time and there’s no zombie apocalypse, right?” She turns her head to the quiet brunette at her side – yes, the one that casually served as Elyza’s pillow.

 

Alicia sighs, throwing a glance at her and shrugs. “Nope, we’re just getting back on our ship – which you are invited on, by the way.” She gives the blonde a weak smile and continue. “You saved our life and treated Chris. That’s the least we can do.”

 

“A ship?” Elyza quirks a brow, a little bit curious.

 

“Yes, it’s safer on the water because they can’t swim.” Alicia explains calmly. “We had been lucky that Nick met Strand, the owner. It’s a bit too extravagant for a ship in my opinion, but we’re not going to spit on that. It’s better than being on the ground.”

 

“How’s your brother?” Alicia squints at the name. “Sorry, I mean, your stepbrother.”

 

“He hasn’t woken up since he fell asleep.” The brunette answers, looking at her mother. Madison has always been one person to care for the others a lot, even though they were not family – she has a big heart. It was her that proposed giving Elyza a chance to stay on Strand’s ship and Alicia was grateful for that. She didn’t know how to repay the blonde after all she went through to save her and the group.

 

“Good, he’s healing faster this way.” Elyza notes, nodding to herself. She looks at the horizon and points out a black dot. “Is that your ship?”

 

“Yeah, it is.” Alicia closes her eyes. She had almost fallen asleep on the newcomer, but she didn’t want to put all her weight on her and wake her up. She had struggled with staying away for the past hour. Daniel was going at an incredibly slow pace. “I can’t wait until we’re back and I can get some sleep too.”

 

Elyza sighs and addresses to Daniel. “Sir, would you like to have a break?” The Salvadoran man looks at the blonde, uncertain. “I’ll gladly take a turn at rowing.”

 

“If you insist.” Daniel agrees, getting up and switching places with Elyza. He looks at Alicia for a few seconds and speaks to her lowly, in a way that only her could hear what he says. “Where did you find this one?”

 

“When we split in the parking lot of the grocery store, I was alone. She’s the one that used the horn to distract the dead.” The brunette ways, a hint of proudness in her voice. “If it wasn’t for her, I would be dead by now. I owe her my life, twice actually.”

 

“Good, she is fierce and we need people like her.”

 

It surprises her that Daniel agrees to add another member to their small group. “Here I thought that you were here to tell me not to trust her and everything.”

 

“I will also recommend to not get attached to her; we never know.” That was the good old Daniel, always mistrustful of anyone but his family and a few members of the group. Alicia rolls her eyes and lets him talk. “We know nothing about her.”

 

“Just as my father didn’t know nothing about your family and we let you inside our house without questioning it.” Alicia retorts angrily. “She saved my life! For me, it ends there.”

 

Salazar seemed to be about to say something back, probably about the young woman’s insolence towards him, but he catches Travis’s gaze and drops the case without adding anything else, for which Alicia was glad for.

 

Alicia’s stepfather takes his turn on the row and Elyza comes sitting at the brunette’s side with the shadow of a smile on her lips. “Hey, you look worried.” She tells her, examining Alicia’s perfect green eyes.

 

She sighs, not wanting to elaborate too much. “I don’t think that Strand will like having another person on board.” She explains, looking at the waves hitting the barque. “He’s quite special… and then there’s she issues with Nick.”

  
“Your brother?”

 

Alicia nods and add: “Like I said, he’s going through a rough time and he’d do anything to get any sort of drugs.”

 

“Like my Tylenols?”

 

“Yes, and I know he doesn’t want to but he’ll eventually cause trouble.” Nick was like that, always thinking only for himself and eventually getting caught in a dangerous situation. Like that time when he ran in the street and got hit by a car. Her brother, even if she hates admitting it, needs to be supervised. They couldn’t let him outside for supply runs, it was too dangerous. Nick would only look out for pain medication or anything that could satiate his needs. He is their weak link.

 

“Its fine, I won’t share with him.” The blonde answers, patting Alicia’s shoulder.

 

“If he finds out that you have some, I’m not sure he’ll give you the choice to share.” She rolls her eyes. “I think he’s getting to the point where he’ll hurt himself to get anything.”

 

Elyza clenches her jaw, understanding that it wasn’t to be considered lightly. “I’ll hide them, then.”

 

“That would be wise.”

 

* * *

 

Everyone is pretty tired when they finally get on the boat. Chris woke up and let himself be dragged by Daniel and Travis to what the younger members of the group called their room. Elyza has a smug grin on her face as she looks around; the boat is big and she wouldn’t mind if it was her temporary refuge. It was less scary to be surrounded by water, because the only thing they would need to worry about was other living humans.

 

She lets Madison and Alicia properly reunite, the mother hugging her daughter tightly. Alicia doesn’t protest and allows herself to hide her face in her mother’s neck. She was glad to be with her again, she had feared the worse. “I thought I lost you.” Madison whispers in her daughter’s hair, holding back her tears. “When I realised you were gone, I tried to go back for you but Travis wouldn’t let me.”

 

“They would have cornered you Mom.” She whispers, pulling back slightly to look the older woman in the eyes. “Let’s say I got lucky. Elyza blew the horn and saved me.”

 

They pull apart and Alicia glances over at the blonde. Madison makes her way to Elyza, who was a few meters from them, leaning on the railing. Wind was blowing in her hair and Alicia couldn’t believe that his girl, who looks so young, could have saved her twice from hordes of undead.

 

“I think I should thank you properly.” The older woman says with a timid smile, bringing the blonde into a tight hug. Elyza looks surprised by the tenderness and stiffens for a moment, but eventually gives in and reciprocate the hug. “Thank you for bringing me back my daughter unharmed.”

 

“I only did the right thing to do.” She replies, glancing at Alicia. “I don’t like to watch people die anyways.” This was telling a little bit more about the blonde, not much but Alicia understand that she saw people die since the outburst.

 

Madison finally pulls apart from the hug and gives Elyza a warm hug. “I don’t know for the others but, in my opinion, you are welcome to stay as long as you want. We’re okay with food since we could gather a few supplies at the grocery store.” She takes a breath before continuing. “But know, Elyza, that if you are to stay with us, you’ll need to prove yourself useful.”

 

“I don’t think that it’ll be necessary, I don’t plan on staying too long.” Something stirs inside Alicia when Elyza says those words. Not that she wanted the blonde to stay with them indefinitely, it’s just that she could help them out. She obviously knows more things about what she calls the walkers than they do and she has knowledge in firearms when most of them didn’t.

 

“That’s up to you.” Alicia’s mother says, taking a few steps backwards before turning her body and leaving, probably to join Travis and watch over Chris.

 

Alicia leans against the railing, imitated by Elyza, who gently nudges her in the arm with her elbow. “Don’t be sad, cheekbones.” She smirks.

 

“I’m not, I just wonder why you prefer to be on your own out there.”

 

“I…” She takes a long breath and starts her explanation. “It’s better like that, I think. I don’t have any expectations from anyone and if I do a mistake, I know it’s mine and no one else’s.”

 

“But no one has your back.” Alicia insists and Elyza turns her head towards her, staring at her with ocean blue eyes.

 

“I don’t need anyone to have my back, I know well what I’m capable of.” She brings her hands together.

 

“What if you hurt yourself or get bit?”

 

“Then I’ll die and no one will be there to cry over my dead body.” She sighs. “I don’t want anyone to remember me like that.”

 

“I think that’s a little exaggerated.” Alicia huffs in annoyance.

 

“Well, I don’t. I don’t think that death is the end.” The brunette looks incredulous. “I don’t mean that we’ll turn into walkers, if you’re worried, but more like a part of yourself is transmitted somewhere in this world, per example an animal.”

 

“Reincarnation?” Elyza nods at Alicia’s question. “Okay, this conversation is getting way too serious for me for the amount of sleep I got last night.”

 

A smiles breaks free of the brunette’s lips as she starts walking towards the door leading inside the ship. “Hey, wait!” Elyza sprints to get to her side. “Where do I sleep?”

 

“Come with me.” She indicates to the blonde, who follows her.

 

Even if she is a little bit hungry, Alicia wants to get some sleep. In the last eight hours, she had gone through a lot of things; escaping the walkers, splitting from her group, running about a mile… she definitely needs to get sleep after all the emotions she went through. The highlight of her day had been to come across Elyza. They wouldn’t have made it out of the grocery store without the blonde’s distraction.

 

They get to what Alicia can describe as her, Nick, Chris’ and Ofelia room. There’s no one in there and she figures that the adults have decided to put Chris on a real bed this time, so he is more comfortable when sleeping. The others must be in the kitchen, eating.

 

Alicia moves to her makeshift bed, sitting and then laying on her back. “Sweet.” She hears Elyza mutter and she sits down next to her. “It’s better than sleeping on a rooftop or on a tree.”

 

“Shut up.” Alicia mutters to herself. The brunette feels a weight on her belly and her eyes shots open, looking down. Elyza seems at her ease, her head resting on Alicia. “What the fuck Elyza?”

 

“You’ve got the only pillow.” She complains. “I would’ve picked the clothes in my backpack, but they’re still soaked.”

 

She grunts in annoyance. “If you sleep on my stomach, it’ll put pressure on my bladder and it will _hurt_.”

 

“Fine then, your choice.” The blonde removes her head from Alicia’s belly and scoots her body closer to hers. She drops her head on the pillow and their faces are only a few inches apart.

 

Alicia swallows and rolls her eyes, but don’t find the strength in her to protest against sharing body heat. She’s cold and tired and only wants to get over eight hours of sleep this time, not bothering if she ends up waking up in the middle of the night.

 

Elyza says nothing more, closing her eyes, her usual smirk on the lips. Alicia watches her a few more seconds before closing her eyes too, falling asleep easier than she expected.

 

* * *

 

She’s not sure how long she slept when she wakes up, but she definitely knows that there’s a body practically molded against her back. Alicia moves a little, stretching her arms and legs, then she notices that there are arms pinning her against the mattress.

 

She hears noises coming from behind her back and jerks her head in the direction, not bothering if she wakes the person sleeping against her. Alicia remembers that it’s Elyza and the other teenager opens her eyes and rushes to sit, staring at the direction from the noises while she grabs the knife securely strapped to its case on her leg. She was already prepared to fight.

 

They squint in the darkness, finally seeing Nick digging in Elyza’s back pack and Alicia knows too well what he’s looking for in it. “Nick, get the hell away from that bag!”

 

Nick jumps about two feet in the air when he hears his sister’s menacing words, dropping the bag at the exact same time. Shoving his hands in his pocket, the taller young man blushing because he got caught red-handed. “Ali, it’s not what you think!”

 

“Oh, really?” She frowns at him, upset. “You’re searching a stranger’s belongings just for fun, that’s what you’re telling me?”

 

Elyza interrupts, putting her knife back in its case. “Hi Nick, I’m Elyza. I would recommend you to give back whatever you took from me.” It’s a quiet warning, but a warning nonetheless.

 

“I didn’t steal anything.” He replies, frowning. Elyza could see the similarities between him and his sisters. Nick looked like and older male version, drug addicted, of Alicia.

 

The brunette scoffs at her brother. “We don’t have the same definition of borrowing, then.”

 

“I didn’t take anything, I swear!”

 

Elyza, although she really wants to believe him, she doesn’t. She shakes her head and says: “You are a foolish person if you think that I didn’t see you put that bottle in your left pocket.” She approaches him slowly and he adverts his gaze. “Give it back to me. This is the last time I’m asking nicely.”

 

Somehow, Alicia is dying to see the blonde put his brother at his place. Fortunately, Nick doesn’t complicate the situation and takes out the bottle of pills from his left pocket. He looks at his sister. “I’m sorry, I didn’t…”

 

“Shut up, I don’t want to hear your lame ass excuse this time.” Alicia looks very pissed at him. “Get out!”

 

He turns his back on the young women but Elyza puts one of her hand on his shoulder to stop him. The other hand is shoved in the back pocket of Nick’s jeans and she takes out a pack of cigarette protected by a plastic bag. “I’d take that back too, if you don’t mind.”

 

Nick, looking quite humiliated, vanishes from the room in a matter of seconds. There’s a silence and the blonde looks at Alicia, then snorts. “His face! Did you see his face!” Alicia can’t help but crack a smile because, well, Elyza did really put her brother in his place. She was almost sure that Nick wouldn’t try anything on the blonde from now on. His pride was touched.

 

Elyza starts laughing and puts her arms around her stomach. “Oh that was fun!” She giggles and Alicia rolls her eyes, giving a slap on the other teenager’s arm. “Oh god, my stomach hurts.” There’s another silence before Elyza cracks up again, throwing her head back.

 

“Nick’s so gonna hate you!” Alicia replies, shaking her head, trying to remove that stupid smile from her own face.

 

“Hell that was worth it.” The blonde continues giggling for a few more seconds as she wipes the tears from her face. “I’m so fun.”

 

“You’re not fun, you are just lacking in human interaction.”

 

“Maybe that too, yes, but I still made you laugh.” Elyza quirks her eyebrows.

 

Alicia bites the insides of her cheeks, not wanting to give her that point. “Whatever.”

 

* * *

 

 Alicia and Elyza make their way to the kitchen after using the bathroom for their most urgent needs. The brunette’s stomach was grumbling since they woke up. They both deserved to have a good meal, especially after the day they had. When they walk in the kitchen, most of the members of the group are sitting at the large table. They’re talking to each other and immediately stops when they see the teenagers coming their way.

 

The only ones missing are Nick, Madison and of course Chris, who’s probably still too weak to get out of bed. Alicia’s brother is probably still feeling humiliated and wants to be alone and her mother taking care of the other teenager.

 

Travis gives them a welcoming smile. “We thought it would make both of you happy if we let you sleep.” He taps the table. “Come on, sit with us, breakfast is served.”

 

The two younger women sit, Alicia at Ofelia’s side. There’s a place right between her and Strand. The black man eyes at Elyza, curious. “When everyone told me about you, I figured you were a soldier woman in mid-thirties, not a teenage girl.” 

 

The blonde shrugs at Strand. “Sorry for the disappointment, sir.” It occurs to Alicia that Elyza had always been polite in front of adults and she respected that.

 

“I’m not disappointed, more like surprised. How have you managed to survive all this time alone?” He asks, everyone turning their heads towards Elyza.

 

“I would say it’s a bit of survival skills mixed with a lot of luck.” She offers him a smile that he returns to her.

 

Victor Strand looks at the other members of the group. “I like this one, I think we should keep her.”

 

Ofelia is the next one to addresses to the newcomer. “Excuse him for not introducing himself properly. His name is Victor Strand, he owns this boat. I’m Ofelia, you already met my father, Daniel. Thank you for bringing everyone back in one piece.”

 

“It’s the least I could do, Ofelia. I’m Elyza Lex.”

 

“No need to wait for approval, you can serve yourself.” Strand indicates, pointing the food in the middle of the table. “Make yourself at home. I discussed with the others and we agreed to let you stay on board as long as you want. If you contribute, of course.”

 

“Thank you for offering, sir.” The blonde picks up a bowl looks at what they have. It’s mostly canned food; beans, corn, those cheap noodles loved by kids, dry crackers and a few other things. It looks particularly good to Elyza; the last real meal she had was many days ago. Since then, she mostly just ate what she found on the way, like chips, chocolate bars, things that she could easily get from vending machines. “I think I’d do anything for a good cheeseburger right now.”

 

Ofelia groans and puts a hand on her stomach. “That would be truly wonderful. The closest we could have would be a fish burger… minus the buns.”

 

“I miss pizza.” Alicia complains.

 

Travis smiles at his stepdaughter. “Please, you remove the cheese with almost all the toppings. All that’s left on it is the pepperonis and pasta sauce.”

 

“If you were lactose intolerant, you’d understand.” She retorts, frowning. She likes milk, cheese and everything, but she always has problem digesting it. “At least, now I don’t have to worry about milk.”

And then they started talking about what they missed the most before the outburst, Alicia noticing that Elyza kept quiet, not wanting to share what she truly missed the most.

 

* * *

 

Alicia, Ofelia and Elyza hung out together for the rest of the day, preferring staying outside than inside. Since Chris woke up, Madison and Travis were all over him, trying to help him with whatever he needed. Alicia thought it was too much to be at his feet like that, but she didn’t care to share her opinion with anyone. She had gotten closer to her stepbrother the months after everything went to shit, but she wasn’t particularly able to stand his attitude. They had fought over stupid things because both were angry teenagers in the middle of a zombie apocalypse.

 

The brunette is sitting back against the railing, listening at the music on her phone. She fought the urge to look through the pictures on her phone. She would probably become nostalgic, filled with emotions and all of this. She didn’t want that.

 

Elyza, on the other hand, was taking care of cleaning her guns. Alicia had given her the pistol she borrowed before making their way to the beach and lighthouse. She was meticulously handling them, watched closely by Ofelia, “How did you learn to use guns?” The Salvadoran woman wonders.

 

“My father was a police officer, he started teaching me when I was young.” She explains. “Some would say it was dangerous, but today especially, I’m glad that he taught me. It saved my ass a few times.”

 

“My father doesn’t want to let me handle a gun.” Ofelia looks at the pistol Elyza has in her hands.

 

The blonde hums. “I could always teach you, if you want. You never know when it could be useful.”

 

“Yes, I’d like that, but he cannot know about this.”

 

Alicia, having only one earphone in her ear, followed the conversation and agreed that Daniel would indeed be mad at Elyza for showing Ofelia how to handle and fire a gun. Madison doesn’t even know that her daughter had a pistol in her possession, because she gave it back at the blonde at the moment they got on the boat.

 

“Fine, I’ll show you sometime.” Elyza agrees, giving the older woman a warm smile.

 

* * *

 

The adults don’t bother them for the rest of the day. The three of them find Nick sprawled on the living room’s couch as they make their way to their shared room. He doesn’t even stir when they pass right next to him and Elyza thinks that it’s a miracle the guy is still alive right now if he sleeps soundly like that. A walker would have quickly noticed him and took its chance to bite into his flesh.

 

Elyza borrows a t-shirt from Alicia and makes her way to the bathroom. She still cannot believe that they have hot water on the boat and she is very happy about it, because she deserves a long and hot shower. She knows that she wasn’t allowed to use all the hot water, but even be able to clean herself in a bathroom was deluxe for her. She definitely doesn’t regret saving the girl from the walkers.

 

She stays a good five minute cleaning herself, scrubbing her skin until there’s no dirt left on her. It feels incredibly good to smell good and clean again, especially since she couldn’t afford stopping every now and then to take a shower.

 

She comes out of the bathroom with a wet messy bun and clean clothes. She feels relaxed, something that she haven’t allowed herself to be for a long time. She missed that and she savoured it, knowing that it could not last long. Getting used to all of this would have her let her guards down and it could be dangerous.

 

Coming back in the room, Elyza hears only the sound of someone snoring. She believes its Ofelia, because when she had fallen asleep at Alicia’s the previous night, the brunette was sleeping soundly. The room is dark and she almost stumbles on Alicia’s feet when she moves.

 

Sitting carefully, she can feel the younger brunette stirring at her side. A tender smile appears on her lips and she lays on her back, turning her head towards Alicia in the dark, hearing the intake of breath. Their faces were close and Elyza could smell the breath of mint.

 

“Am I making you nervous?” The blonde whispers, biting her lower lip afterwards.

 

It takes a few seconds before Elyza gets her answer. “Shut up and sleep, would you?”

 

 


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know I said Tuesday but I had some time on my hands (instead of studying, you know) and I wanted to post it. So here it is, chapter four. Hope you'll enjoy :)
> 
> *** Mentions of drugs.

Madison comes to a conclusion: they will need to get off the boat again, sooner than what they expected. Even if they started to ration their food, their reserves were getting low, and they had been only been back for three days from the latest supply run. One good thing came back from Elyza being on the boat: she had a small fishing line and they started to take turns to try at trying to catch fish. They only had one lure and it wasn’t the best one to fish with, but it became successful nonetheless.

 

Elyza said that she wanted to be a part of the supply run party, remembering them all that she has gun and isn’t afraid to use them on the walkers. Alicia approved that the blonde was quite a great addition to their group in that department, even though Elyza was slowly getting on her nerves. Being stuck on a boat, forced to interact with other people, it was hard on Alicia. When she feels the need to be alone, she isn’t, because either the blonde or her mother always feel the need to know where she is or if she’s safe. It’s a damn shit, there’s literally nowhere to hide.

 

She was starting to get on Alicia’s nerves for a few reasons: first, her over confidence that she could do anything that she wants – that’s just not how the world works – secondly, and probably what annoyed her most, the blonde’s signature smirk. Every time she sees it, she wants to slap that stupid smug smirk off her face, but like, not do any damage to her face.

 

Nick hasn’t tried another time to sneak his hands in Elyza’s backpack, even though the blonde was leaving it in their room, unwatched. It was surprising coming from Alicia’s brother, having this kind of self-control. The brunette like it, even if she wouldn’t admit that Elyza’s presence on the boat had changed a few things for the better.

 

Elyza was also spending a little more time with Madison and Ofelia, teaching them how to realise stiches. It was mostly just her explaining how to do it and with what, because they couldn’t really practice on anyone or anything. The blonde and Ofelia, although being with Alicia, were always talking together about everything and anything, not including the younger brunette in their conversations. Was Alicia jealous of them? Absolutely not.

 

On the fourth day of the blonde’s presence on the boat, Alicia feels that she is going nuts. There’s not a lot to do, once every chores are done. She spends most of her time on board, listening at music, thinking more and more about getting back on the ground. Elyza, Daniel and Travis are getting out there again and Alicia has already an idea in the back of her mind: going with them.

 

It wasn’t that hard to convince her mother to let her join the group. The next morning, they’re on the shore, all four of them. Daniel argues that they should pick a convenience store or something similar, giving them a chance to pick up more food, but Elyza tries to put some reason into his mind. “If we gather the supplies in a public place, there’s a few chances that we’ll find a horde of walkers. It’s easier if we break in houses.”

 

Alicia agrees with her, having seen her on the move and everything; Elyza had great survival skills and she had been living alone before joining temporarily their group. The brunette, even if she wouldn’t admit it directly, prefers the blonde’s ideas to Daniel’s. “We will be able to bring back more supplies to the ship.” The Salvadoran man retorts.

 

“Bringing more supplies at what cost? Losing a member of the group?” The blonde counters. “Travis, I thought you said he agreed to ransack the houses.”

 

The tall man adverts his gaze. “He was warming up to the idea, so I thought he would eventually agree with it.”

 

Daniel shakes his head. “It would take us twice the time than a store!”

 

Alicia interrupts. “Probably, but it’s the safest way. Less undead on the way.”

 

“We can find useless things too, like guns and tools.” Elyza explains, a certain emphasis on the word _guns_. She knew that Daniel would probably be interested in this.

 

Daniel takes a long and deep breath, thinking silently for a few more seconds, then he takes a menacing step towards the blonde. “Fine, I’ll accept to follow your plan, but if anything happens… it’s on you.”

 

She nods and smirks. “Everything’s going to be fine. We just have to be careful and _not_ use our gun, except if’s it’s a situation of life or death. We don’t have enough ammo to waste them.”

 

Elyza gives Travis one of her pistols and she does the same with Alicia. Daniel and Elyza already had their own shotguns. “Do you know how to use it?” She asks the man. He nods and she turns her head towards the brunette. “Do you remember?”

 

“Yeah, I’ll be fine.” Alicia answers simply.

 

“Care to show me?”

 

She rolls her eyes but she shows Elyza everything that she remembers, including putting on the safety and removing it. “Good, I’m impressed.” She winks at Alicia, who feels the heat creeping up to her cheeks. “Okay everyone, let’s go.”

 

They made their way to the closest suburb, one that was directly on the shore. If they got caught up in a situation and they couldn’t make their way out on the streets, they could always make their way to the ocean and swim to a safe place. It wasn’t the best evacuation plan but at least it was one.

 

The first house was abandoned and had no walkers wandering in it. There wasn’t much food left in the kitchen, but they searched the house room by room, just in case they would find something interesting to bring back to Strand’s ship. Nothing, it seemed like the family that live there had brought a lot of supplies with them – that or someone had already searched the house before them. This was worrying Elyza a little, because it could mean that the other houses could have been searched too.

 

They were a little bit luckier with the next few houses, only encountering a few walkers on their way and inside. It was mostly the blonde managing to get rid of them before they could do any harm to the other members of the group. They also found canned food, untouched water bottles and juice, focusing more on the healthy things rather than junk food like chip and chocolate bars. Elyza made only one exception to the rule; candies. Every time she comes across a jar of candies or lollipops, she has to pick some up, usually putting one in her mouth and the rest in her pocket or bag.

 

Alicia thinks that Elyza always picking up candies is cute. If it’s a thing that can make her happy, it doesn’t do any harm to anybody to suck on a lollipop. She thinks it’s funny when she take out a walker, the candy shoved in her mouth and a concentrated expression.

 

After clearing the next house rapidly and noiselessly, the brunette makes her way upstairs to look for medicaments and anything that could be useful. Elyza chooses the first room while Alicia opts for the bathroom. She finds aspirin and shoves it in her bag. It could still be good for Chris’s injury.

 

“Found anything?”

 

She freezes in stupor when she hears the blonde’s voice right behind her. “Fucking hell.” She mutters to herself, just loud enough for Elyza to hear it. She answers to her in a neutral tone: “I found some aspirins and… shampoo.”

 

“Good.” Elyza hops on the counter, looking at her with a smug smirk.

 

“What, did you find something?” Alicia wonders, quirking her eyebrows.

 

Elyza hums and nods. “Yeah… I’ll show you later on the boat, if you want.”

 

This does pick up Alicia’s curiosity and she was about to ask for more details, but Travis entered the bathroom saying that they were about to leave for the next house and it would be their last one for that day. They already accumulated more than they expected to take back to the ship; their backpacks were heavy, but not too much. If they needed to run, it wouldn’t be that uncomfortable.

 

In the last house, they had to kill five walkers: Elyza fought the two firsts, Travis and Daniel teamed up for another two. Alicia got surprised when another one came from a room that they already checked; if it wasn’t from a vase being knocked out by the infected, alerting her when it crashed on the floor, it would have probably bit her. She pushed him on the ground and stuck her knife in its eye.

 

After taking care of the walkers, they stop to take a few breath, looking at each other in the eyes. The blonde is the one to break the silence. “I think that we already draw enough attention for today, this vase crashing on the floor had probably alerted every walker around.”

 

At that moment, a walker starts to hit the front door, making everyone spin to face the sound. It doesn’t open it, but the thing sure knows where they are. Every member of the group can hear its groans and the thumps as it hits the door. “Should we take care of this one?” Travis asks, looking at Elyza.

 

“No, if there are more on the front, they already know we’re here. We have to leave now.” She says, going down the hallway, carefully avoiding the now definitely dead bodies on the floor. “We run for it and we stop only when it’s safe.”

 

She pushes the backdoor open and starts running, the others following closely. There are thankfully not enough undead around to get in trouble. They don’t notice the group right away, but they start shuffling slowly behind them, trying to get to them.

 

 After a few minutes of running, they get to the shore and start slowing down, until they just walk. Daniel is out of breath, being the oldest one of the four. Elyza takes out a lollipop from the back pocket of her jeans and puts it in her mouth. “That had gone better than I expected.” She says and everyone nods their agreement, even Daniel.

 

They get back to the barque five minutes later and get back to the ship without any surprises.

 

* * *

 

When they get back that day, they decide to make a large meal and eat all together, a thing that they didn’t do often because Nick mostly wanted to be somewhere else than with Elyza. Chris was also feeling better and it only was a good sign for him. They talked about going out for more supplies in three days. They had enough supplies now to last for a complete week, but if they could find more weapons it would also be practical.

 

After the big lunch, the adults, Nick and Chris retreated to their rooms – or to the living room, for Nick; he didn’t wanted to sleep near Elyza. He acts like a real child sometimes, right?

 

This leaves Alicia, Ofelia and Elyza alone in the kitchen. They don’t talk much about anything interesting, they just wash the dishes and clean the area. When they’re done, the blonde jumps on the counter, observing them with a smirk. “Remember, Ali, when I told you that I found something?”

 

“Yeah, you said that you’ll tell me only on the boat.” She remembers. “What is it?”

 

Intrigued, Ofelia moves towards them. Elyza puts a hand in her pocket and, for a second, Alicia thought that the blonde would pull out a candy, because it would be so like her to do something like that. Instead, she pulls out a small bag and wiggles it in the air. “I found this!”

 

Alicia is not quite sure of what it is, but Ofelia sure seems to know. “You found drugs and brought this here?”

 

“Why not? It’s already rolled and all we need to do is smoke and relax.” Elyza says, winking at them.

 

“I don’t do drugs, sorry.” Ofelia retorts, shaking her head. “And do it outside, it’ll stink if you smoke this thing in here.”

 

“Of course, Ofelia.” She retorts, all serious. Then, she looks at Alicia and asks:  “What do you think about this, cutie?”

 

“I don’t smoke too.”

 

Elyza rolls her eyes. “You’re no fun.” She says, hopping off the counter. “I guess this is goodnight, then.”

 

She makes her way outside, leaving Ofelia and Alicia together. The older woman looks at her and smiles. “I’m going to sleep. Keep an eye on her, would you? I don’t want her to make any rash decisions when she’s stoned.”

 

“I think that she’ll probably pass out and I’ll have to get her ass to the room.” Alicia tells her, but she nods her agreement. “Goodnight, O.”

 

“Yeah, you too.”

 

Alicia makes her way outside, eyes scanning for Elyza, but the blonde is nowhere to find. Someone clears its throat and Alicia looks up, finding the one who she was searching for. Elyza is above her, head poking out of the rooftop of the boat, a smile creeping on her lips. “Come and join me?” She asks to the brunette, wiggling her eyebrows.

 

She huffs but makes her way to the top. The night has settled and stars were starting to appear in the sky; it was one other good thing about the apocalypse. There was no electricity, except for the boat, and there was definitely less pollution in the air. This combination made that they could now see the stars in the sky, a really beautiful thing to admire.

 

“Don’t you think it could be a little dangerous to smoke weed?” Alicia asks when she sits at the blonde’s sides.

 

“You’ve clearly never smoked.” Elyza lets out a little laugh and turns her head towards the brunette. “Weed makes you relax. For some people, it’s medicinal. It’s only dangerous when someone drives a car or something like that, not while we’re sitting on a boat in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. I just want to have a good time, that’s all.”

 

“What are the effects?”

 

“It depends for everyone, but I always end up hungry as fuck.” She pick up the joint, puts one extremity in her mouth, pulls a lighter out of nowhere and lights the other up. She inhales and looks at Alicia for a few seconds. “Wanna try?”

 

Alicia wants to, she wants to know what it does to her, how it would make her relax. She takes a deep breath and slightly nods. Elyza’s eyes lit up and she passes the joint to the brunette. “Take a small puff, otherwise you’ll choke.”

 

She does as explained but still manages to choke. It burns her throat and the taste is disgusting. Elyza opens a bottle of water and gives it to Alicia, who takes a few sip of it, trying to calm herself. “Oh my god, this is disgusting.”

 

The blonde lets out a small laugh and nods. “You get used to it, generally. I prefer to smoke from bongs, but this will do, since we don’t have anything else.” Alicia gives the blunt back to Elyza, who bites her lower lip. “I can show you other ways to inhale it indirectly, if you want. It’s easier on your lungs if you’re not a regular smoker.”

 

“Just… give me a few…” She chokes again. “Minutes.” Alicia wipes out a tear on her cheek. “How do you manage to not choke on it?”

 

Elyza, with her twisted mind, snorts and lets out a chuckle, making the brunette roll her eyes. “I used to smoke weed at parties, but I smoked cigarettes regularly before the outburst. Now, it’s only when I can find a pack of smokes, but I’m not looking for it.” She takes a lollipop from her jeans. “Here, it will help you.”

 

Alicia takes the lollipop, removes the wrap and puts it in her mouth. The candy is watermelon flavored, she finds out. “Thank you.” The blonde was right, it was helping to suck on something because she puts all her concentration on it.

 

“Yo, watch this.” Elyza tells her. Alicia looks at the blonde, who inhale and exhales making ‘O’ shapes with the smoke. The wind blows them away quickly. “You see, pure talent.”

 

“Truly amazing.” Alicia concedes, though there was a lot of sarcasm in her voice.

 

The smell of weed in the air is faint, the reason being because they were on a boat on the middle of the ocean. They look at each other silently, Elyza puffing on the blunt, not choking like the brunette. She exhales and smiles. “You wanna try again now?”

 

Alicia nods and she finds herself with the joint in her hands again. She brings it to her mouth for the second time, then inhale a small puff. She doesn’t choke on it and Elyza seems proud of her. “It’s not that bad uh?” She lets out a giggle and Alicia quirks her eyebrows. “I can already feel it, I think.”

 

The younger woman can already feel the buzz too and she doesn’t know how to describe how it feels, since it’s the first time she has ever smoked, either drugs or cigarette. She was feeling warm and her skin was tingling a little. “I can feel it too.” She takes another puff and asks Elyza: “You said there’s other ways to smoke?”

 

“Yes, you want me to show you?”

 

“Sure.”

 

Elyza takes back the blunt with a smug smile on her lips. “Cup your mouth with your hands.” She indicates, then takes a puff. Alicia does what the blonde said.

 

Bringing their faces closer, Elyza puts her face in the hole of Alicia’s hands. The brunette is quick to understand that she has to inhale and they spend a few seconds close, before Elyza pulls away and starts choking too. “Oh… Ohh – fuck, that hurts.” She coughs a few times. Alicia lets out a laugh and Elyza slaps gently her shoulder to reprimand her. She uncaps the bottle of water and takes a few large sips. “Like I said, it’s been a while.”

 

“I can see that.” Alicia teases.

 

“Okay, ready for another one?” Elyza asks. “This one will be the last, I want to make the joint last.”

 

“Sure, what do you want me to do?”

 

“Same thing.” She winks. “You’re gonna hate me for this one, I think.”

 

The brunette frowns in confusion, but obliges to her friend’s indications. Elyza takes a deep breath and takes a puff off the joint. Then, she turns it and puts the light up part of the joint inside her mouth, so she can holds the roach with her teeth. They do the same thing and when Alicia inhales the smoke, it comes rushing down her throat and in her lungs.

 

She chokes harder than the last time and it takes a few minutes before they both stop from coughing. They lay on their back, looking at the stars. “I’m never listening to you again.” Alicia says, her voice coming out an octave lower. “What the fuck was that, my throat hurts as fuck?”

 

Elyza giggles and answers: “I did you a shot.”

 

“You’re a demon.”

 

“Yes, but a cute one.” The blonde retorts, turning her head towards the brunette. Alicia can feel Elyza’s eyes on her face and somehow it doesn’t bother her at all. It’s probably because of the buzz.

 

They stay in the same position for a while, getting themselves comfortable. The night is not as cold as it has been in the last few days – or it was but they couldn’t feel it – as they laid on the rooftop of Strand’s ship.

 

Elyza hums, making the brunette turns her head towards her. Alicia’s cheeks are flushed, but it gladly didn’t show in the darkness. “What?”

 

The other young woman giggles and puts a hand on her wrist. It felt good, but the brunette doesn’t admit it to herself. “I’m glad I rescued you in that parking lot, the other day.”

 

“I probably wouldn’t have made it out if it wasn’t from you.”

 

“Yeah, I know.”

 

Alicia looks Elyza in the eyes and offers her a small smile. “Thank you, Elyza.”

 

“It was my pleasure.” She smirks in return. “I couldn’t let a pretty girl die right in front of me, could I?”

 

The younger brunette scoffs and shakes her head. “You’re so full of yourself.” Elyza bites her lower lip and Alicia’s eyes lowers, catching the movement, as the blonde’s warm hand slides in hers. Alicia can feel her heart thumping in her chest and she cannot believe that it’s the blonde who makes her feel this way. She swallows and closes her eyes. “We should go back inside before we fall asleep on the boat.”

 

“We’ll make too much noises, it’ll wake them up.” She hears the blonde say. “I wanna stay here, it feels good.” She rubs her thumb the skin on the back of Alicia’s hand, making the girl shiver at the contact. “Stay with me a little longer?”

 

“What do I get in return?” Alicia asks before thinking about it.

 

Elyza hums. “What do you want?”

 

Alicia shrugs. “Fine, I’ll stay, but you owe me one.”

 

They stay in the same position for hours, falling asleep at each other’s sides on the rooftop of the boat.

 

* * *

 

The next morning, they wake up with the sun even if they only had a few hours of sleep. Alicia is the first one to wake up and she finds herself pinned by Elyza. The blonde has one of her leg between Alicia’s and her face pressed against her neck. There was only one way to perfectly describe their position, according to the brunette: intimate.

 

She’s afraid to move, not wanting to wake up the blonde, so she doesn’t move at all. She kinds of appreciate the weight of another body on her. It feels good, almost normal, and she realises that she missed it a lot. Matt was the last person before Elyza with who she cuddled with, but it was different; Matt was a man and Elyza a woman. It wasn’t the same thing at all.

 

The blonde stirs in her sleep and moves one of her hand to Alicia’s hips, finger brushing slightly under her short. She touches the younger woman’s warm skin without noticing it, still soundly asleep. Alicia bites her lower lip and exhales quietly, deciding it was finally time to wake Elyza up.

 

“Hey lazy ass, you’re crushing me and I have to pee.” She says, poking the blonde’s shoulder.

 

Elyza stirs again, opening an eye to look at her. “It’s too early.”

 

“You want me to pee on you?” Alicia retorts, raising her eyebrows.

 

“Are you into this kinky stuff?” Elyza muffles, closing her eyes, pulling Alicia’s body closer to her.

 

“What, no!” The brunette grumbles.

 

“You feel so good and warm.”

 

“Not a good reason to make me a hostage, Elyza…” She tries to wiggle out of the blonde’s hold. “Just let me go, pretty please?”

 

“You ask so nicely.” The older woman rolls off her body and lays on her back. “Why is the sun so aggressive this morning, uh?” She complains, putting an arm on her eyes, trying to block the light.

 

Alicia doesn’t bother answer Elyza’s rhetorical question or to thank her for letting her free. She replaces her t-shirt, that wasn’t correctly in place because of the way she slept, then she hops off the rooftop cautiously. Making her way back to her room, she sees Ofelia already up, eating directly in food in a can. The Salvadoran woman looks up at Alicia and frowns.

 

“You didn’t come back to the room last night.” It was almost a reproach, but Alicia could also feel the suspicion in her friend’s voice.

 

She nods slightly. “Yeah, I fell asleep with Elyza on the rooftop.”

 

“Did you smoke too?”

 

“I just woke up, please.” She sighs and only wants to tell Ofelia to give her a break. She didn’t need another mother on the boat. Ofelia rolls her eyes, surely already knowing the answer to her own question, as Alicia makes her way back to the room to get her things for a shower.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We learn that Elyza has a soft side.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's Tuesday :D
> 
> Today's update is shorter because exams and life happened. I'm also sad because my puppies left for their new families and it like truly broke my heart to not have those fluffy annoying things around the house.

It’s easier than she thought it would be, to be around Elyza. Alicia only got to accept that the blonde likes to tease her and make snarky remarks. Getting past those, it’s easy to have a good time with her, even though it’s the end of the world and chances were that everyone would rather get crazy or die – or both. It’s been a week and a half that Elyza came into her life and the brunette wonders what will happen next. She wasn’t supposed to stay long with them, claimed that she only needed a refuge for a few days. Now that it had been a week, Alicia thought that it was only a matter of time before she judged it was enough and leave the boat.

 

Alicia doesn’t want to say goodbye yet. Chris is her stepbrother and it’s not like they are close; the other teen is fine, but they would have never got along if it wasn’t for their particular situation. Nick is her own brother but she can’t stand him, not if the only thing he wants to get is drugs. She still remembers the last time he started seizing and wants him to grow up a little and take matters in his hands. Ofelia is the one she gets along the most, but she is older and associates more with the adults than with a seventeen year old teenager. Elyza, who is the same age but a few months older, is the only one that truly understands Alicia.

 

However, they don’t really talk about personal things. Elyza knows about the situation with Nick and how it affects Alicia, but she doesn’t bring it up. They mostly hang around, talking about what they would do if everything got back to normal – which would probably not happen.

 

Through a week and a half, Alicia learned that the blonde was the daughter of a policeman and a chief surgeon. The reason of why she came to Los Angeles was still unclear because she didn’t wanted to elaborate much on that. She knew that she had been accepted in Berkley, just as her, but in medicine studies. They maybe would have bumped into each other. Alicia was curious a bit, wanting to know what kind of Elyza would be and how, in general, she was as a person before all the zombie thing.

 

* * *

 

One day, after getting out of the shower, Alicia finds Ofelia and Elyza in their room, sitting on their makeshift beds. Both of them are laughing – probably at something the blonde said – and stopped when the younger woman opened the door. Elyza’s guns are in front of them and Alicia thinks that she is explaining to Ofelia how they work, remembering that her friend had asked the blonde to show her how to use the weapons. They’re sitting at each other’s sides, wearing large smile.

 

Ofelia looks up at Alicia and sighs. “Hey, I thought you were my dad. You scared me a little.” She explains. Alicia frowns and drops her things on her bed. “He doesn’t want me to learn how to use a gun.”

 

“It won’t stop me from teaching you.” Elyza nudges gently Ofelia’s arm. “It’s better to know how these little babies work, just in case you need to use one. We never know.”

 

“I just think you’re irrational, wanting to learn how they work.” Alicia interrupts them. “O, you’ve been shot. You shouldn’t push your luck.”

 

“You learned it.” Ofelia counters and the younger brunette clenches her jaw. “So you’re telling me that you are irrational too?”

 

Elyza’s eyes widen suddenly and she interposes herself. “Woah, stop it right there. Ali, she can learn to use them, but it doesn’t mean that she’ll have to. She just wanted to know how to defend herself, no need to be rude.” It is meant to be gentle, Alicia knows that, but there’s something that frustrates her even more and she can’t quite put her finger on it.

 

“Fine, if you shoot your feet don’t come back at me whining.” She tells Ofelia.

 

Alicia leaves the room, slamming the door closed. She knows that she had been having mood swings, which was a thing for a young teenager with a uterus bleeding every damn month. Yeah, it was that time and it frustrated Alicia because, even if it was the apocalypse was at their door, the women on the boat couldn’t even have a break. Like it wasn’t already enough.

 

After Alicia slammed the door, the two woman left in the room look at each other with surprised expressions, probably not thinking that the brunette would tell them something this rude. “I don’t even know why she’s mad at me.” Ofelia starts, talking quietly. “This morning at breakfast, everything seemed fine with her.”

 

Elyza sighs and start putting away all her guns, just in case someone would come in the room and catch them. Ofelia didn’t wanted anybody to know about this, just in case they’d report to her father. Daniel would be mad to know Elyza is teaching his daughter how to use pistols and shotguns. “I think that she just had a really cold shower.” She explains, hoping that it would only be that. They had to split the hot water tank for nine persons, of course hot water would run out eventually.

 

“I think you should go talk to her.” The other woman says, looking at the blonde. “You’re closer to her than any of us. She doesn’t even want to talk to her mother about… you know, stuff.”

 

“You think?” Ofelia nods her agreement. “I don’t know, maybe I should let her calm down a little…”

 

“Are you kidding me? Ali doesn’t need time to calm down, she’ll overthink anything and get even more frustrated.”

 

Elyza smiles to herself because she knows how frustrated Alicia could get. “Okay, then.” She stands up after putting away all her guns in her backpack. “Wish me good luck?” Ofelia rolls her eyes and pushes Elyza towards the door.

 

“Just don’t do the candy thing with her.” The older woman warns, giving her a knowing look.

 

“But the candy thing’s my best peace offering.” Elyza pouts.

 

“Don’t do it.”

 

* * *

 

Elyza finds her friend sitting on the rooftop of the boat. It had been their spot since they smoked weed together and fell asleep there. No one ever comes for them as long as they know where they are. She climbs with agility and sits beside the younger brunette, a smile on her lips. Alicia, as usual, has her earphones in her ears and is listening music. She acknowledges the blonde’s presence, because she tilted slightly her head, but she doesn’t talk or make an effort to listen to whatever Elyza has to say to her.

 

She cautiously takes the earphone out of Alicia’s ear, eliciting an annoyed grunt from her. Elyza takes out a lollipop from the back of her jeans and wiggles it underneath Alicia’s nose. “I come here with a peace offering.”

 

“Just leave me, I don’t want your dumb candy.”

 

Elyza sighs and exaggerates her pout. “But it is watermelon flavored. Your favourite.” Alicia rolls her eyes and shakes her head. “Come on, it’s the last one.”

 

“You can’t take no for an answer?”

 

“No.”

 

“Leave me, Elyza!” She scowls and turns her head on the opposite side of the blonde’s direction.

 

“You’re no fun.” She removes the plastic wrap from the candy and wiggles it again in front of Alicia’s mouth. “Open your mouth and savour this endangered species.” The brunette grunts another time before opening her mouth, putting the lollipop in it and closing it. Elyza definitely hears the crunch noise and sniffles. “It was meant to be savoured.”

 

“Well, I didn’t want to be bothered.”

 

“You didn’t have to waste my beloved candy!” Elyza says, crossing her arms on her chest. “Don’t let out your frustration on food, eating your emotions isn’t good for your health.”

 

“I doubt that you’re here to give me a lesson about health, so why are you here?” Alicia demands, staring at her.

 

Elyza offers her a small and timid smile. “Are you mad at Ofelia?”

 

“What the fuck.” She rolls her eyes and shake her head. “No, I’m not.”

 

“Then are you mad at me?”

 

“Why would I even be mad at you?”

 

Elyza shrugs and answers: “I don’t know, that’s what I wanted to find out…”

 

“I’m not mad at you…”

 

“Stop sending mixed signals.” She sighs. “Can I give you a friendly advice?” Alicia quirks her eyebrows, waiting for Elyza to continue. “I know that zombieland is not the dream right now and it’s hard on everyone, but don’t make it hard on the others.”

 

Alicia changes from her sitting position to lay on her back. “Okay.”

 

The silence falls as Elyza watch the ocean, arms crossed on her chest. They should watch the area more often; other group of humans could try to claim Strand’s ship, since it’s so big without reasons. They could be targeted easily. They are both lost in their thoughts, Elyza thinking about the safety of the boat and Alicia about how long the blonde was willing to stay with her group.  Closing her eyes, the younger woman finds herself asking: “When are you leaving us?”

 

Elyza takes a deep breath and lays on her back too. “I don’t know, it’s not bad to be amongst the living for once.”

 

“Stay longer.” There was an unsaid _please_ in her voice, but it doesn’t come out because Alicia doesn’t want to beg for it. Elyza is old enough to make her own decisions, but if she would influence her way of thinking, they could spend more time together.

 

Elyza hums. “What can I get in return?”

 

“You owe me one. Remember?” Alicia opens her eyes and turns her head towards the blonde, who was already gazing at her.

 

“I would like to know the reason why you want me to stay.”

 

“I lack friends?” She suggests, though this is not the real answer. She wants Elyza to stay on the ship because she didn’t want her to get hurt all alone out there. Alicia would be sad, because she wouldn’t get to know what happens after Elyza’s departure. She, for herself, would probably stay on the boat until Travis or her mother decides otherwise.

 

Elyza lets out a small chuckle. “Okay, I’ll stay until you get tired of me.”

 

* * *

 

It started raining in the middle of that same day, therefore making everyone seek refuge inside. Strand didn’t want to deal with them and he locked himself up in his room, which was just normal for the rest of the group. Alicia preferred not to interact with the Black man; he was strange enough according to her. What was surprising was that Nick seemed to get along well with him, which was unexpected because they had nothing in common except that they had been held in the same hospital. Both were running from the walkers and Eliza, Chris’s deceased mother, had unlocked the door at the last second. That woman saved her brother’s life and she couldn’t even thank her properly because she was now dead.

 

Some of the adults are in the living room, the others are in the kitchen. As for the youngest members of the group, they were in their room, sitting on their makeshift beds. Alicia is sitting against the walls, arms circling her knees and listening to her music. She hates to be confined inside but agrees that there’s not much to do outside either.

 

Elyza is sitting at her side, the notepad in her hands. She is only sketching a little, trying to find a way to pass the time. Alicia catches a glance of what she is drawing and she is impressed as much as she gets frustrated. The blonde is drawing Chris, who decided to take a nap on Ofelia’s shoulder, the older woman sleeping too. She expected Elyza to draw something else, _someone else_ than her annoying younger stepbrother.

 

She doesn’t mention anything, but she turns up the volume, closing her eyes. Alicia can’t wait to get back on the ground: the boat is shaking like crazy because of the waves hitting the sides of the ship. The movement annoys her a lot.

 

Nick was also sleeping soundly in a corner of the room. He understood that Elyza was going to stay a little longer with their group and that she wasn’t mad at him for trying to steal her meds the first day she was on the boat.

 

Alicia’s older brother stirs in his sleep and the brunette looks at him curiously. He doesn’t seem comfortable at all, sleeping in a weird position. She removes one of her earphone. “Nick, you alright?”

He opens his eyes, disoriented for a moment, then looks at Alicia. He nods but she knows he’s trying to remain unfazed. Nick gets seasick and it’s no wonder why he is right now, with the waves hitting the boat and the resonating sound of the rain on the boat. “Get up now.” She orders him and he obliges. They’re both up at the same time and she starts pushing him towards the bathroom.

 

It’s too far from their room and Alicia knows her brother is right about to throw up. They walk in the living room and the brunette only has the time to take the trash and bring it up to Nick’s mouth. He closes his eyes and throws up in the less elegant way.

 

Madison is at their side in a matter of time, hearing her son throwing up. “We will need a trash can in the room.” Alicia says, looking at her mother. “He almost puked on me.”

 

“Sorry, I’m… I’m sorry, Lysha.” Nick says after everything he had in his stomach ended up in the said trash can. “I don’t feel too well.”

 

“Can you go get your brother a glass of water, please?” Madison asks her daughter insistently.

 

Alicia obliges and walks to the kitchen. Travis is already making his way in the living room with a glass of water, having heard Nick throw up. “Is he good?”

 

“Define good.” The younger woman retorts. It’s not a question, she just feels annoyed by the situation and always having to take care of Nick. Travis doesn’t bother reply anything else, just watching her for a few seconds before entering the living room.

 

Alicia makes her way to her shared room. Elyza glances at her and smiles. “Everything’s fine?” The brunette nods and lays on her makeshift bed.

 

“Yeah, he’s just seasick.” She finally answers. “Blow the candle off when you’ll want to sleep.” Elyza smiles and gets back to her drawing, while Alicia closes her eyes, laying on her back.

 

 It doesn’t take long before the brunette finds sleep, which is something almost miraculous. It’s hard to get a full eight hours of sleep when you’re not exhausted and it’s even harder to fall asleep. Maybe it’s the weather, but she drifts away in Morpheus’s arms.

 

* * *

 

Alicia wakes up suddenly, sitting up way too fast for her to not feel dizzy because of the movement. She just had an awful nightmare, making her remember how badly she misses Matt. She dreamt about when she got to his place and found him in his bed, sick and sweating uncontrollably. Back then, she didn’t know what was going to happen with him, but now she knew and she hates herself because she left him there, all alone, suffering until his death.

 

She dreamt about watching Matt turn into a walker and that she couldn’t move at all. She was trapped, he was going to bite her as soon as he noticed her presence and she would die. She imagines his lifeless body on the bed, then noticing the twitch in his fingers. _He’s waking up_. Alicia wants to scream for help, but it’s useless, Matt or his body is slowly getting up and shuffling towards her.

 

She could almost feel the sharp teeth sinking at the base of her shoulder and neck without mercy. Blood spills and she releases a desperate cry.

 

That’s when she wakes up. Elyza, feeling the sudden movement of Alicia, moves and puts a comforting hand on her shoulder. “Hey, hey, it’s okay.” She pauses, looking into green eyes. “You’re okay.”

 

“I… I’m sorry, I woke you up.” Alicia presses her face into her hands, adverting her gaze.

 

“No, I was still awake.” She murmurs. “Wanna tell me about your dream?”

 

The brunette bites on her lower lip and wait for a few seconds. She doesn’t want to share too much about her boyfriend. Ex-boyfriend. It was still painful. “Matt… he turned into a walker and he got me. It felt so real.” Alicia sighs, passing a hand through the mess of her curly hair.

 

“It was just a nightmare.” Elyza offers the younger woman a smile.

 

“Yeah, I know.” She nods. “You can’t sleep?”

 

“I… can I tell you something?” Alicia quirks her eyebrows, encouraging the blonde to continue speaking. “I’m not capable of sleeping when there’s a storm.” The brunette thinks it’s inconvenient but adorable.

 

“You put yourself in danger, literally all the time, to save our ass and kill walkers… you, of all people, are scared of a storm?”

 

Elyza rolls her eyes at Alicia and puts her lips in a pout. “I’m not scared.” She mutters. “I just don’t like them, to a point where I can’t sleep, that’s all.”

 

Alicia gives her a small smile. “I was just teasing you. It’s not like you don’t do that with me all the time.” The brunette was right; Elyza took pleasure in teasing her and making useless an inappropriate jokes.

 

The blonde scoffs and removes the hand on Alicia’s shoulder. “You should get some rest.” She says, taking back the large notepad she uses to sketch on.

 

“Are you offended?”

 

“What? No.” She answers. “I’m just… not in the mood, I guess.” She starts drawing, no longer paying attention to Alicia.

 

Even if she wants to get back to sleep and get more rest, Alicia can’t fall back asleep just like that. She stays immobile, eyes closed, but sleep just doesn’t come to her. The only noise is coming from Elyza’s crayon brushing against paper and Chris snores. Nick would snore too if he wasn’t in the living room or bathroom because of his seasickness.

 

Alicia starts wondering about what the blonde is drawing. She stirs and looks over at Elyza, very concentrated in her art. She sucks on her lower lip and the younger brunette smiles to herself for a few seconds. She decides to move, sitting up to look at the drawing. She knows it’s a little bit invasive, but she doesn’t care if Elyza gets mad at her; she wants to satiate the need to know _whatever_ she is doing on that notepad.

 

Elyza is not only doodling stuff, she is actually drawing someone, a woman Alicia doesn’t recognize. It doesn’t surprise her; the portrait is truly stunning. She widens her eyes. Elyza, who jumped at the brunette’s sudden movement, starts blushing furiously. “I thought you fell asleep again.”

 

“No, I couldn’t. This is beautiful.” Alicia says, pointing at the drawing. “Who is the girl?”

 

Elyza puts the notepad away, looking at the younger woman. “She… was someone special to me.” She adverts her gaze. “I knew her all my life.”

 

It intrigues Alicia, the way the blonde speaks about the woman. “Was she your best friend?”

 

“Yeah, but it was…” She shakes her head. “It was quite complicated.”

She begins to understand where the blonde is trying to tell. “You were in love with her.” She murmurs, looking at Elyza, who releases a deep sigh. “Did she know about your feelings?”

 

She shakes her head negatively and Alicia immediately regrets pushing the conversation. Elyza gulps and it’s evident that she is getting emotional over this subject. “We’ve known each other since kindergarten…” She pauses a few seconds. “Her dad was one of the ambassadors for the United States and she moved to Indianapolis when we were thirteen. We kept in touch, she came back in Australia two years after to spend Christmas holidays with her family and me.” She passes a hand in her hair. “I got jealous when she told me about her boyfriend and that’s how I knew I loved her.” She looks at Alicia and shrugs. “Sorry, this…”

 

“No, it’s okay. If you want to talk more, I’ll listen to you.” The brunette smiles at her.

 

“I came to LA to see her.” She bites her lips and closes her eyes. “We were both accepted in Berkley, but I submitted here just to be with her…” She says, trailing off.

 

“What’s her name?” Alicia asks.

 

“Fiona.” She smiles, opening her eyes to gaze at the younger woman. “We were together when walkers happened. You might not believe it, but she was the one defending my sorry ass all the time.” She lets out a chuckle and shakes her head, trying to get rid of the tears forming in her eyes. “Henry, her boyfriend, was with us. He died two weeks after the light went out. He and Fiona got into a fight, he was getting very anxious about the whole thing and they got bitten.” A tear escapes, falling down her cheek. Elyza wipes it with the back of her hand. “I knew I would be alone from then. I had to… stop them from turning into those monsters.”

 

“You did what you had to do.” Alicia tries to be compassionate. “Don’t make it hard on yourself, Elyza.”

 

She rubs her eyes and lets out a wet chuckle. “I miss her.”

 

“I know…” She puts an arm around the blonde’s shoulders. “I miss Matt too, but at least we have each other.” It elicits a small smile from Elyza. “I don’t know for how long, but we can support each other, right?”

 

Elyza nods and asks reluctantly: “What was he like, Matt?”

 

“Very sweet and charming.” She pauses, looking down on her wrist, where she remembers him drawing a heart shaped design. “He loved art and had been accepted to the Art institute of California.” Alicia takes her phone and scrolls through her photos. She finds her favorite; Matt and her were at a friend’s party where they had a few drinks and took a few photos – this one was when Alicia gave him a kiss on the cheek and Matt was smiling widely.

 

“You look happy.” Elyza says, looking at the photo.

 

“It was just after our six month anniversary.” She clenches her jaw, remembering that it was also the night she really started getting intimate with him. Before, it was passionate kisses and everything, but she wasn’t ready for more. When she told him that she wanted to have sex, he was very gentle and listened to what she wanted. They took their time and, even if it was a little painful, Alicia was grateful for Matt’s patience. He was her first boyfriend and the only man who she made love with.

 

Elyza puts the side of her head on Alicia’s shoulder, closing her eyes. “At least you have a picture of him.”

 

“Your drawing is pretty good, though.”

 

“It’s different from a picture… it’s only a memory from her.” The brunette understand what Elyza means by that. “Thank you for listening to me.”

 

“I think you really needed it.”

 

“Yeah.”

 

They fell asleep like that, sitting with their back against the wall, Elyza’s head on Alicia’s shoulder.

 

 


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was fun to write!
> 
> Warning: walker kid.
> 
> (Also, fluff at the end)

It never felt so easy to be around someone before meeting Elyza. Now that she knew a little bit more about the blonde’s background, Alicia doesn’t hesitate to speak more about hers. She even shares information about her father, which was without doubt a touchy subject. She hates remembering when the police officers came to their door to tell them that he had been involved in very brutal car accident. She doesn’t tell Elyza everything in details, but it feels good for Alicia to get this off her chest.

 

The ship’s condition is getting worse. Fuel ran out ages ago, but then of course, appears several other problems. Food being the main one, there is also no hot water and the electricity is having issues. Travis thinks it might run out soon, as it has been a few weeks that they had been on the boat. Without gas, there’s no way the electricity would have worked forever. They need to start talking about a new plan, so that’s why they gathered at the dining room’s table.

 

“We need to talk about our options.” Travis starts with a serious expression. “We can’t stay on the boat forever.”

 

“Yes we can.” Strand counters, a scowl on his face. “The infected can’t get us if we stay here.”

 

“You know well that it’s not the infected we have to worry about if we’re on the water” Madison says, putting a hand on his fiancé’s shoulder.

 

“It’s only survival matters from now on.” Elyza looks at Strand. “You can’t defend your ship forever, someone will try to steal it and they won’t accept you standing in their way.”

 

“She is right.” Alicia’s stepfather nods in agreement. “We have guns, but a low supply of ammunition. People don’t trust anybody now and they will try to kill us.”

 

“I know what our best chance for survival is and that’s not living on this ship.” The younger blonde says, crossing her arms on her chest. “I’ve survived on my own all this time; we can make it if we keep our heads low and don’t draw attention.”

 

“We’re nine, we will definitely be moving some air, out there.” Alicia states, looking at her friend. “I agree that we have to get off that boat, but we will be putting ourselves in danger.”

 

Daniel rolls his eyes and mutter something in Spanish, then addresses to everyone. “We’re already in danger, wherever we are. I think we have to focus on how to deal with the undead before we think about getting comfortable somewhere.”

 

Madison speaks up. “We know that and we need to be careful. Anything could happen if we make a mistake.”

 

Strand growls in frustration. “I’m not leaving my ship anytime soon.”

 

Nick scoffs and rolls his eyes. “Really dude, you’re going to stay here alone?”

 

“Damn right I am.” The black man says with a scowl.

 

“Is it because it’s your ship?” Elyza asks him. He nods firmly in response. “Then you are a fool to think you’re going to make it in this shithole. We’re not on a cruise here, it’s the real world and it sucks, don’t you think we should stick together?”

 

“No, I don’t think so. I am perfectly capable of surviving on my own.”

 

“Then you will die.” She tells him. “Whether it’s from the hands of someone, dehydration or starvation.” Alicia knows the blonde’s words are meant to put some sense into Strand’s head. “Maybe that will be by your own hands, because you would get tired of knowing everyone you know is either dead or left you behind.”

 

Strand lifts his chin and retorts: “It’s something I’m willing to risk. I will stay on this boat and I won’t change my mind.”

 

“Fine.” Elyza shrugs, shaking her head and looking back at Travis. “One mouth that we won’t have to feed.”

 

It was a decision that would benefit the members of their group when they’ll be on the ground, they all know it. Elyza simply don’t understand how someone willingly wants to be alone when they have the option of being a part of a group. When she was alone, after her best friend’s and best friend’s boyfriend’s deaths, it wasn’t because she choose this, it was because she was forced. She would have never be alone on purpose; she came across a few people after, but she didn’t wanted to be a part of a group she knew partake in killing other people to claim their supplies. She wouldn’t hesitate to kill someone if her life or her friends were in danger, but that’s the only reason she would end a human life.

 

Travis clears his throat and continues. “Okay, Strand will not leave the boat.” He says, looking at Elyza. “We have to find a place safe enough to stay for a while.”

 

“It could be a house, like the ones we ransacked last week.” Alicia proposes.

 

Madison looks at her daughter. “It would be a good idea.”

 

“We could go in a small convenience store.” Daniel suggest, pausing before continuing. “We will have food and water.”

 

“But nowhere to sleep but on the ground.” Ofelia counters, looking at his father.

 

He sighs and tells his daughter: “Comfort is not our priority right now. If we have to sleep on the ground, we will.”

 

She looks like she is about to argue against her father’s words, but she decides otherwise. Travis says his opinion. “You are right, comfort isn’t our priority. Though, it comes to the same if we pick a convenience store or a house. Everything is abandoned, except from the infected, but I think it’s easier to get out of a house; they have more windows and doors.”

 

“Small stores usually have only a front door and a backdoor. If both exits are blocked by walkers and there’s no escapes, we’re dead.” Elyza states, looking at them. “I’d prefer staying in a house.”

 

“What about the lighthouse?” Chris says, a smile on his face. “It’s surrounded by water and gives a good panoramic view.”

 

“It would be good temporarily, but there’s usually not a lot of space in it. And if the walkers break in, we’re put in a bad situation.” Madison argues, looking at Travis’s son.

 

“If we’re talking about long-term ideas, I suggest we pick a farm.” Ofelia suggest. “There’s usually a large house. If we can find one with a silo and a barn, it would be good. With the fields around, it could be an advantage for us.”

 

“I don’t dislike this proposition.” Elyza says with a smile. “We will still have to go out for supplies and ransack the houses around, but we could also harvest vegetables. If there are still animals around, we could use them for food.”

 

Travis nods. “This is a good idea, Ofelia.”

 

“The only matter is how we could get to a farm.” Daniel points out. “We have the barque, but we won’t make it far with it, if we’re eight to leave the ship. Not to mention that we’ll need to bring supplies. It would be easier to get down on the ground, find a car large enough for us and get through the city.”

 

“Which is dangerous, Daniel.” Madison tells him.

 

“It is dangerous, exactly.” He agrees. “Roads are blocked, there will be infected everywhere. They might be slower than us, but if we get blocked somewhere, it could be fatal. We could end up on foot.”

 

“Anyone has other suggestions?” The older woman says.

 

There are a series of no coming from the group. Strand keeps quiet, simply because he will stay on the boat and has no opinion in the current topic. “We should make a vote.” Nick looks at his mother and Travis.

 

“Nick is right.” Alicia says. “The majority will decide of where we will go.”

 

Daniel shakes his head. “This isn’t a democracy.”

 

“No, it’s not, but we have to stick together and the best choice is to see what the majority wants.” Travis counters, looking at the Salvadoran man. “If you are not agreeing with the vote, there is nothing holding you back. You can leave and settle at a place you judge better for your survival.” Daniel mumbles something incomprehensible in Spanish, but doesn’t say anything else.

 

“Fine, we start the vote.” Madison says. “Raise your hand if you want to stay at the convenience store.” It’s not surprising when nobody raises their hands; Elyza made a good point earlier about the exits. “Okay. Now, the house.”

 

Daniel is the only one to raises his hand. “There’s plenty of houses everywhere, we just have to pick up one.” He explains himself.

 

Travis continues. “Raise your hand if you want to go to the lighthouse.” He looks at his son, who stays immobile. Maybe he thought that Chris would still want to choose the lighthouse, since it was his idea in the first place. “Seems like the majority wants the farm.” A few of them nod their agreement. “We will still have to find one, it should please you Daniel. We will stay in houses along the way.”

 

“When do we leave?” Alicia asks, looking at her mother.

 

Travis and Madison looks at each other for a few seconds. “The sooner, the better.” Her stepfather says. “Perhaps tomorrow morning, if everyone agrees.” There is an evident question in his words and he waits for everyone to voice their opinion.

 

“I agree with tomorrow morning.” Daniel says. Ofelia doesn’t say anything, but she usually goes with her father’s opinion, wanting to stick with the remaining member of her family.

 

“Tomorrow’s fine.” Elyza says, getting up. “We need to start packing now and we take only what is necessary. Otherwise it will be harder to travel and, if it slows us, we’re nothing but dead.”

 

The last members of the group agrees that they will leave tomorrow in the morning, because it’s easier to travel with the daylight and rest for the night. Strand looks at them for a few seconds, then asks: “I suppose you will take the food supplies?”

 

Travis sighs and shakes his head. “No, you can keep them and the fishing rod. You’ll need it more than us, we will find food on the way when we’ll scavenge houses.”

 

Strand thanks him and walks out of the kitchen.

 

* * *

 

Alicia had a hard time sleeping, knowing that they’ll be on the ground the next morning. Elyza tossed and turned all night too, which was distracting. The brunette always had a light sleep and any noise could wake her up. She believes that this will be a good advantage if they were to sleep in an abandoned house and find walkers wandering aimlessly around. It could save her life.

 

Madison comes to wake the group and finds Alicia already awake and packing her things. Nick complains but gets up, because he didn’t want to miss the last breakfast on the ship. Strand agreed that they would need to have food in their stomach before leaving. They knew that there was a chance that they mightn’t find food right away or needed to run from the infected or fight them. With any possible outcome, it was better to be satiated before setting foot on the ground.

 

Everyone is silent while they eat, looking at their plate. It’s obvious that they’ll miss the sense of safety they have on the boat. Alicia forces herself to swallow every last piece of her breakfast, because it can be the last one she could enjoy for a little while.

 

Since everything is already packed up, all they need is leave the boat. Strand can’t start the motors, because he’s out of fuel, therefore they need take the barque to the shore, along with their belongings. Before getting on it, each of them hugs Strand tightly, telling him to take care of himself and not do anything stupid. He wished them luck and to stay safe.

 

It takes about thirty minutes to reach the shore in the barque because it allowed only one person to row. Alicia is silent, looking at the water, wondering if they were making the right choice. Anything could go bad from now on.

 

She is brought back to reality when Elyza, sitting at her side, gently nudges her with her elbow. Alicia turns her head towards the blonde and frowns. “Are you nervous about this?”

 

“I am, but I still think we voted for the best suggestion.” She concedes, turning her head to look back at the water and the waves hitting the barque. “I just don’t want anyone to get hurt.”

 

“I get it.” Elyza says. “But staying for too long in one place is as dangerous as moving from one to another. Everything has its risks.” Alicia nods in understanding and stays quiet for a while after this.

 

When they finally put their feet on the ground, they have a good look at the area and sigh in relief. There are no walkers shuffling around. Travis looks at them, a small smile on his lips, and starts to elaborate the plan, a thing they always did when they were on a supply run. “Okay, we need to find a car with enough gas for the day.” He tells them.

 

“And keys.” Elyza points out. “There’s nothing we can do if we don’t find the keys.”

 

Alicia nods in agreement. “We also need a large vehicle, possibly a van or a SUV.”

 

“We could always split up in two cars.” Madison proposes, looking at his fiancé. “If anything happens to the first car, we have the second one for back up.”

 

To Alicia, this doesn’t sound like a good idea. Splitting up had never been good for them, except for that one time in the grocery store’s parking lot, when Elyza found Alicia cornered by walkers and saved her life. “Maybe we should stick with a van”

 

“Mom is right, Lysha.” Nick tells his younger sister.

 

“Madison, Nick, Chris, Alicia and I would be in the first car and Daniel, Ofelia and Eliza in the other.” Travis suggests, looking at the group.

 

“It’s unbalanced. I’ll ride in the second car.” Alicia says, looking at Elyza. She didn’t want to leave the blonde’s side. If anything bad happens, Alicia knows that she can rely on her to save the day. Elyza always has great ideas.

 

Madison scowls, reluctant to let her youngest in the other car. “Fine, but we have to stay close.”

 

* * *

 

They make their way to the closest street, one that is not encumbered with cars. There are only a few abandoned vehicles on the way and only one walker around. Elyza takes care of it, ending it with her hunting knife, and then they continue making their way. The group is far enough from the center of the town and it makes it easier for them to look for cars; they are less bothered by the infected too.

 

Travis had said that they would try to find a car right away and drive in the streets where there were fewer vehicles in the way. Their best shot seemed to be driving on the roads closest to the shore. If there was anything wrong happening, they could always find another car on the way and follow this path.

 

Alicia jumps in fear when she sees a walker inside of a car. Elyza, right behind her, sighs while looking at it. “Should we kill it?” The brunette wonders, looking at her friend.

 

The blonde shakes her head negatively. “It’s trapped inside of the car. It won’t bother us.” She tells her, tugging at Alicia’s wrists for her to follow. “Come on.” She eventually stopped staring at the undead man in front of her to follow Elyza.

 

It takes about thirty minutes before Travis finds a van full of fuel. “We can find another car on the way.” He indicates, looking around. They killed a dozen walkers so far and Alicia’s step father preferred to move to another area. The only member of the group that was against this decision was Daniel, but he accepted it when the others said they would rather move too.

 

There are not enough places to sit in the vehicle, since it’s a commercial van. Travis sits in the driver’s seat and Madison is in the passenger seat. The others threw the boxes outside before squeezing themselves in the back. It wasn’t comfortable, but it was always better than walking. Elyza complains when Travis starts going off the road to avoid the car blocking the van’s way, because it makes them bounce in the back.

 

About twenty kilometers later, they had crossed a few hordes on their way, but nothing to worry about, they decided they need to get some air and stretch, and then start looking for another car. A few of them would look for a new vehicle while the others would secure the area.

 

Nick is probably the happiest young man in the world. Pretty much since he set a foot on the ground, he wore a wide grin. He was probably glad to not be on the ship anymore, because he wouldn’t get the seasickness he’s had to endure for weeks. Or because he now is free to search for the drugs he craves.

 

While looking inside cars, Alicia finds another knife she judged worthy of keeping, since it is large and long enough to handle. On the other hand, Chris makes another discovery; a .44 magnum that makes Elyza jump in excitement. Travis asks his son to give it to the blonde, since she was the most experienced person with guns in their group. He complained, but eventually gave the pistol to the older woman.

 

They find a SUV with keys still on the ignition and Daniel decides it would be the second car. Alicia and Elyza are glad the Salvadoran man had chosen this type of car, because if anything was to happen, they could squeeze in it, but also because it would be more comfortable than the commercial van Travis drove.

 

The two young women sit in the back of the SUV with smiles on their lips. Daniel is behind the wheel, of course, while Ofelia is on the passenger’s side. Elyza notices that there’s a CD player and pushes on the eject button to see if there was one inside. “Oh yes, there we go. A classic.” She says when a CD comes out. She pushes it back in and a song from the Beatles starts to play. No one seems to be bothered by a little bit of music, not even Alicia.

 

* * *

 

They ride until mid-day. The reason why they stop is because some are getting tired of sitting and others need to relieve themselves. Travis and Daniel stopped their vehicles and said they should find a house nearby and call it a day, but they needed to find a house first.

 

It wasn’t a residential quarter, which has a good advantage for them, because there was a lot of distance between the houses, meaning fewer walkers in their way. They could pick a house with a second floor too, giving them visibility on the area.

 

They didn’t need to look out for food, because a few members of the group found canned food while they were searching for car keys. People tried to flee from the city with their cars but, with the general panic of the outbreak, they left their personal effects along with the food in their cars. Most of those persons were probably walkers by now. Having found food already meant that they didn’t need to search every house in a mile radius and they could just pick one to stay for the night.

 

They stopped their vehicles in the driveway of a large house. They were all grateful that the ride had been without any trouble. They had to get off the road several times because of cars blocking their way, but that was pretty much all they had to deal with.

 

Elyza hops off the SUV and stretches, looking at the house with a smile. Even if it was abandoned, it still looked majestic somehow; it’s a two storey high house that has large white pillars in the front. It would have been the kind of place she would have loved to call home, if it wasn’t from the outbreak. The blonde sighs, looking around. It was dead silent, if it wasn’t for the light wind blowing. “We knock at the door; see if there are walkers inside. Kill any that come out. Sound good?” She proposes, picking up her hunting knife.

 

“Why? We could all go inside at the same time, then search.” Chris says, looking at the blonde.

 

“Well, we could get inside, yeah. But if we stumble into a walker, I don’t want to have the pleasure to kill it and drag his body outside.” She smiles at him. “It’ll bleed everywhere and they smell awful.”

 

Travis nods, impressed by Elyza’s judgement. “That’s clever.” He tells her. “Come on, let’s go.”

 

They almost all grab their knives, ready to defend themselves. Two of them, Daniel and Ofelia, are watching their back as Travis walks up the porch. He knocks on the door and opens it, backing up slightly to not get any undesired surprises.

 

The group hears the noises before they can see them. There is more than one infected in this house, but they are prepared to fight them. The first one comes up and Elyza doesn’t hesitate to stick her knife in its head. The body falls on the ground as she retries her weapon, ready for the next one.

 

Travis gets the second and Madison the third walker. She struggles a bit with it, but eventually finds the opportunity and the right angle to kill it permanently. Alicia thinks this is disgusting, but she’s also proud of her mother for defending them.

 

Behind them comes a lone undead, shuffling towards Ofelia slowly. Daniel looks at his daughter unsure, but she nods at him and walks toward it, knife up. It’s easier for her to give him a kick in the stomach. The female walker falls the ground, almost pathetically, and Ofelia ends it without hesitation.

 

Two more walkers are getting out of the house and coming directly for Elyza, who was the closest to them. The blonde swears under her breath when another is shuffling towards her, at her side. “Fuck you.” She pushes the first one, sending it to the ground. She takes care of the second almost without any effort. “Fuck you too.”

 

Alicia, seeing the other walker getting too close to her friend, surges forward. As soon as it sees the brunette approaching too close, it gets its attention on her, hands trying to grab her. It’s a male walker probably above six feet tall and she knows it’ll be hard to end it.

 

Hopefully, Elyza is done by the time she starts fighting off with the infected and comes to help Alicia. They push him on the ground and the blonde sticks her hunting knife in its skull. It makes an awful noise that makes Alicia wants to puke; she turns her head away to avoid that.

 

“Awesome.” Her blonde friend tells herself with a grimace, wiping her knife on its clothes.

 

Seven walkers dead and they think it’s over, that no one will come out, but their blood freeze in place when they see one coming out of the house. It’s a child; Alicia’s not sure if it’s a girl or a boy because its face was all eaten up, probably by a walker. Travis gulps nervously and holds up his knife, preparing himself to end it permanently.

 

He hesitates for a second and Elyza takes matters into her hands, not wanting to see Travis get bitten because it’s a kid and get emotional about it. She comes on the young walker’s side and easily pierces its head. The lifeless body falls on the ground and Elyza lowers herself, taking it in her arms.

 

Alicia wonders what her friend is doing. “Elyza?” She asks with a soft voice.

 

The blonde hums in return and says: “Just… give me a second.” She gets up with the body in her arms and starts walking to the nearest tree.

 

Everyone looks at her curiously as she sets the body down against the tree. Elyza lowers herself and closes the walker’s eyes, releasing a sigh. Killing children, even if they were all walkers by now, it was very painful and hard. Thinking about their innocence and vulnerability in this world was making it hard for the survivors to kill them and that was the reason why they were so dangerous. Nobody deserved to die and become a walker, but especially not kids.

 

She takes out a candy from her jeans pocket and puts it in the kid’s hand. “Rest in peace.” She struggles to say, her voice caught up with the emotions. “I hope you’re in a better place.”

 

She comes back to the rest of the group that looks at her with compassion. Elyza offers them a half smile and tells them: “We should clear inside, see if they all came out.”

 

* * *

 

The house is very large and has five bedrooms, enough to have everyone sleeping in a bed that night. When Alicia was looking for more walkers with the blonde in the house, they stumbled on the walker kid’s room. The bright pink of the walls confirmed that it was a little girl.

 

Elyza couldn’t stay standing there looking at the toys, photos and everything that reminded her that this little girl died twice; one time when she got bitten and turned, then when the blonde permanently killed her. Alicia understood what she might be feeling and let her walk away, closing the door; she herself didn’t wanted to stay looking at the room.

 

The members of the group gathered in the living room, sitting on the couches or on the ground. They are talking quietly, eating at the same time, elaborating their plans for the next day, which mostly consisted in driving around and looking for a farm. If they couldn’t find one, they will scavenge a few houses and stay in one for the night, like they were doing.

 

“We need to stay alert and avoid making noises. The last thing we want is having to get out of bed in the middle of the night to save our asses.” Elyza tells them. “Also, I know we don’t have electricity, but don’t light any candles.”

 

“Why not?” Ofelia wonders.

 

“I don’t think it’ll alert walkers.” Madison argues, looking at the younger blonde.

 

“No, but if there’s other survivors outside and they see a light, they’ll come right at us. Either to ask for help or to take our things.” She says seriously. “We don’t want this to happen.”

 

Alicia adds: “And they could bring walkers to us.”

 

“Exactly.”

 

“There’s plenty of clothes and blankets if you guys get cold.” Travis tells them, putting his canned food away. “Get comfortable for the night, I’ll take the first watch.”

 

“I’ll take the second.” Daniel proposes, looking at Travis, who nods his agreement.

 

“I’ll take the last one, if you want.” Elyza says with a smile.

 

“No, it’s okay, I’ll take it Elyza.” Madison puts a hand on the other blonde’s shoulder. “You look tired and I slept most of the car ride.”

 

“Okay.” She didn’t find it in her to argue against the older woman.

 

It doesn’t take long before everyone makes their way to a room. Madison and Travis are in one, Ofelia and her dad in another. Nick stays in the living room, having found the couch comfortable enough to sleep on – remembering that the youngest members of the group slept on makeshift beds on Strand’s ship. Chris takes the small room with the single bed and Alicia and Elyza takes the last room available – the little girl’s room not even considered as an option.

 

When they walk into the room, Elyza closes the door and undoes her messy bun, while Alicia directly sits on the bed, bringing her knees to her chest. The blonde looks at the bed for a few seconds before looking down at her clothes, stained with walker’s blood. She huffs and moves to closest furniture, opening the drawer. She looks at the clothes for a moment and picks up a t-shirt about her size.

 

Not bothering turning around, she removes her stained top and lets it fall on the ground. She puts a black t-shirt on; it looks a little large on her, but it’ll do.

 

When Elyza changes, Alicia’s eyes trails on her friend’s pale skin without a second thought, appreciating the view. The brunette doesn’t remember if Elyza ever changed clothes in front of her. She bites the inside of her cheeks she is caught staring, feeling herself blush a little. The blonde is definitely a beautiful young woman.

 

“Do you mind if I sleep without my jeans?” Alicia is surprised by the question, because Elyza usually sleeps with all her clothes on. Her friend notices the confusion and somehow feels the need to explain herself. “It’s just, at the ship, with the boys… I preferred to keep them, but now it’s just us and I will sleep better.”

 

“It’s okay.” Alicia says, nodding her approval. She wouldn’t sleep without pants, but Elyza could do it, it wasn’t bothering her.

 

Elyza smiles at her. “Good.” She moves to the bed and lay on her stomach, pressing her face in the pillow.

 

After a few long minutes, the brunette starts thinking about her friend’s reaction when she killed the young walker. She closed her eyes and put a candy in her hand, telling her to rest in peace. It obviously affected Elyza to kill what used to be a child.

 

She breaks the silence, murmuring her words as if she’s afraid Elyza will not answer her question. “Are you okay?” She waits a few seconds. “I just wanted to know, because earlier…”

 

“I think I’m fine.” She answers, getting her head out of the pillow. She looks at Alicia. “It’s just hard with the youngest walkers, but I don’t think it’s just me, it’s everyone.”

 

Alicia couldn’t even think of putting a knife in what used to be a child. She understood Elyza’s feelings. “You didn’t have to do it, you know. Travis would have.”

 

The blonde sighs. “I know, but it would have haunted him. He obviously never killed one.” Alicia nods. “It’s like… you lose a part of yourself, because you know they didn’t ask for it and couldn’t defend themselves. I hate this feeling.”

 

The brunette puts a hand on Elyza’s, offering her a reassuring smile. Caught by surprise, the blonde stiffens only for a second.

 

They look into each other’s eyes, blue meeting green. Alicia feels her heart fluttering and she knows she starts blushing when she sees the blonde’s lips curves, forming a small smirk. Elyza changes the angle of her hand and slips it in Alicia’s, intertwining their fingers together.

 

When the younger woman adverts her gaze, they keep holding each other’s hands. Alicia admits to herself that it feels good, to have such a connection with someone. Elyza moves her thumb slightly, brushing it on the back of Alicia’s hand.

 

“You’re lovely when you blush.”

 

“Shut up.” Alicia says, rolling her eyes and retrieving her hand from Elyza’s. It elicits a bigger smirk from her friend.

 

The brunette moves to get underneath the blankets, positioning her back against Elyza. If she wanted to sleep, she had to stop looking in the blonde’s ocean eyes.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I would like to thank everyone for the awesome comments you left and for kudos & bookmarks. 
> 
> There is chapter 7! Yay! I was very content of this one.
> 
> Please don't kill me.

Alicia can’t remember the last time she slept that well. She had been forced to sleep on makeshift beds on Strand’s boat, mostly made of cushions from sunbeds. It wasn’t even near comfortable to lay on that, but it was all they had, since the adults claimed the bed – unfair thing, really, to tell that the teenagers could perfectly sleep on the ground without having a backache afterwards.

 

It’s the first time she sleeps in a real bed for months, the last time being before they rescued Nick at the hospital. When they got to Victor’s place, she had to sacrifice her comfort for the adults – again – but also for Ofelia, who had been shot in the shoulder and needed to recover from her injury. Therefore, it is important to mention that, even if it’s not her own bed, she sleeps like a log, sprawled on the mattress. It’s the best restorative sleep she has ever had in her life and she needed a zombie apocalypse for that. She is even comfortable to the point where she drools on her pillow.

 

The brunette is snoring a little and it is what wakes Elyza up. She’s a light sleeper, she has to be because of the imminent threat of walkers, and therefore she is awake before the sun is up in the sky. She doesn’t mind this, knowing that she will most likely fall asleep faster the next night.

 

She is afraid to stir, not wanting to wake up Alicia, her friend being deeply asleep. After their fight against the walkers the afternoon before, everyone deserved to appreciate the benefits of sleeping, especially if they were to travel again and face more infected.

 

Things could change in a matter of seconds and their mind and bodies needed to be ready for anything happening. Elyza knew that she wouldn’t be a problem if they had to fight, though she was worried about Nick, Chris and Ofelia. They seemed willing to fight, but they were not confident in the way they were moving and it could cost them. She didn’t want to have to watch their back every time they’re out there, especially when she needed to watch her own. She would never forgive herself if anything happened to them, not after the death of Fiona and Henry – she knows this isn’t her fault, but she thinks that scold herself because she could have done something to avoid this outcome.

 

Elyza is lost in her thoughts when Alicia stirs. She holds her breath a few seconds. Alicia is sleeping on her side, facing Elyza, while the blonde looks at the brunette’s face patiently. She doesn’t wake up and the older woman is grateful for that; she praises this moment in the morning when everyone is still asleep and she thinks, for a second, that the world isn’t a shithole and there’s no undead trying to eat their brains. When everything was still normal, she could lay in bed for hours, simply awake, but unwilling to leave the bed.

 

Elyza gazes at the perfect face in front of her, defining meticulously her jawline. The blonde doesn’t know why, but her heart starts beating faster in her chest, inexplicably. Alicia is tightly gripping her pillow and it’s adorable – not to mention that she drools on it, she’ll have to tease her later about that. Elyza tells herself that she wouldn’t mind waking up every morning to enjoy a splendid view like this one.

 

When Alicia slightly moves her head and a strand of hair falls and covers her face. All the blonde desires to do is remove it, but she doesn’t want to wake her up, not yet. It’s still dark outside.

 

The brunette stirs again and, this time, Elyza almost thinks that it’s on purpose. Alicia gets closer, her face moving to the blonde’s shoulder to rest on it, and one of her hands finds its way to her hipbone. She’s of the cuddling type – and Elyza too.

 

 _Wait, she’s going to drool on you!_ She thinks, but she still doesn’t want to disturb the brunette’s peaceful sleep. Her eyes fall on Alicia’s lips and she thinks, for a moment, that she could only lower her head to press her lips against her and it would feel so good. But she doesn’t do it because she is her friend and this was the damn apocalypse and she didn’t want to force her straight friend into something she doesn’t want to do. This shitty world is not an excuse to push someone and make them reconsider their sexuality.

 

* * *

 

Alicia slowly wakes up to the sound of birds chirping, which is an unusual thing for her because, in the past months of living on a ship, there wasn’t birds around. She is awake before opening her eyes, trying to enjoy the moment of comfort provided by a stranger’s bed. She can feel too well the body pressed against her, but she doesn’t move either, afraid of waking Elyza. The blonde had deserved a good night of sleep and she would hate herself if she ruined it.

 

She waits for a while, she doesn’t know how long and she doesn’t care either. Alicia likes the occasion they have to sleep in, but she also knows that someone will come to wake them up and she would rather not have her body pressed against Elyza’s when they do come.

 

A ray of sunlight pokes through the window and viciously attacks Alicia’s face. She groans in displeasure and moves her head to be pressed against the pillow and not Elyza’s shoulder – which was not that comfortable. She feels that her chin is wet and comes to wipe the drool with the inside of her wrist. That’s when she hears a chuckle and opens her eyes, meeting the blonde’s gaze. “Morning.” She mutters in a husky voice.

 

“Good morning to you too, Buttercup. Slept well?”

 

“Yeah, you have no idea.” She says a little bit louder. “How long have you been awake?”

 

“I don’t know.” Elyza tells her – it wasn’t untrue, she didn’t have a watch. She had absolutely no notion of the time, usually judging approximatively with the sun in the sky. “A while.”

 

“Couldn’t sleep?”

 

“No, I had a good night of sleep, actually.” She smiles at the brunette, feeling her retrieve the hand that had still been on her hipbone. “It’s just that I had enough sleep.” They continue looking at each other for a few seconds before Elyza adverts her gaze, looking at the wet patch on the fabric of her shirt. “You drooled on me.”

 

Alicia grimaces. “I’m sorry.”

 

“Don’t be, it wasn’t intentional.” She pauses, moving her eyes to Alicia’s lips a split of a second, before looking at her green orbs, a smirk tugging at the corner of her mouth. “Or maybe it was.”

 

She only rolls her eyes in response and puts some distance between them. They started hearing voices and Elyza knew the others were awake. “The others are up, we should go downstairs.” She tells the blonde, readjusting her clothes.

 

Elyza nods and gets off the bed only when Alicia leaves the room for the bathroom. She changes her t-shirt, not wanting a wet spot of the brunette’s drool on her shoulder when she’ll come downstairs. When she hears the toilet flush, she leaves the room, meeting her friend in the hallway, about to come downstairs.

 

They meet the living room again, eating canned food. Nick, who was sleeping at the other end of the room, was the last one to be asleep and Madison had to get up and tell him that they were about to leave. He joined them a few moments later with bed hair. He ate his food silently, while the others continued talking about their plans for the day.

 

“Did someone think of searching the house?” Elyza asks them. “We could find weapons.”

 

Travis shakes his head positively. “I looked around, except from the rooms, when you guys were sleeping, but I found nothing.”

 

“Maybe we should look closer, just in case.”

 

“We already have a few guns.” Chris says, looking at the blonde.

 

“Yeah, I know that, but weapons of any kind are never enough in this shithole.” She retorts, bringing her lips in a pout. “I’ll go check in the rooms, be back in five.”

 

“I’ll help.” Alicia proposes, putting down the can and getting up.

 

Elyza glances at her and a small smile appears. They make their way upstairs and start with the room they slept in. “Okay, so we look everywhere. You can start with the closet, I’ll start with the drawers.”

 

The brunette nods her agreement and walks towards the closet, as Elyza makes her way to the drawers. Elyza retrieves the clothes, letting them fall on the ground. She doesn’t find anything interesting, only cash and jewels – but they have no value now, in this world. Alicia, on her side, removes a few boxes, tosses a few things around but finds nothing that they could use as a weapon.

 

They do the other rooms and, with a little bit of luck, they find a pistol and ammunitions. Alicia was the one to find the gun and she gave it to Elyza cautiously, just in case the safety wasn’t on. Elyza finds a detective badge and scoffs. “No wonder this house is so big, the dude was a detective.”

 

It took them longer, but they eventually join the others and show the newest addition to the group. Alicia is content of their little discovery, because Elyza was right and they needed all the weapons they could find.

 

* * *

 

After packing the last things, everyone gets in the cars and they hit the road. This time, Elyza and Alicia are riding with Travis and Madison, while Nick and Chris are with Daniel and Ofelia. So far, everything was going well for a first day back on the ground, according to the youngest blonde.

 

We can say that Elyza is armed from head to toes, wherever she is going. Even if it’s for a simple ride in car – because it could turn unexpected so quickly. She has two pistols, the two she had when she met Alicia, and a shotgun. This is only speaking about the firepower. She had several knifes strapped to her thighs and calves. Wearing her aviators and leather jacket, the blonde looked like she’s straight out of an action movie. Alicia can only feel safer around her friend.

 

They are in the leading car. Travis and Madison are talking about something that doesn’t interest Alicia. Elyza is pouting in her seat because the CD player from the radio was broken. When the brunette takes out her phone, unwrapping the earphones from around it, Elyza turns her head and gives her a pleading look. “Can I listen with you?”

 

Alicia nods and the blonde unbuckles her seatbelt, sitting in the middle seat to be right next to her friend. It’s easier to listen to music if the other person is closer. They put one earphone each in their ear and Alicia scrolls through her music. “What kind of music do you prefer?”

 

“Rock music, but I’m not very difficult.” She answers, looking down at the phone.

 

They select a premade playlist of various artists and Elyza can’t help but mutter the lyrics, knowing almost every song, eliciting a small smile from Alicia. She even starts tapping the floor with her boots, but she stops when Travis starts wondering if the car is having a problem, excusing herself, giving the man a shy smile.

 

Alicia and Elyza listen to music for most of the car ride, at least until the phone runs out of battery. The brunette is not happy with that because she knows it could take a while before she can charge it again; the electricity on the ground isn’t working anymore, for some unknown reason.

 

It was a great disadvantage for them, the electricity not working, because it means that refrigerators and freezers can’t work. With most of the food perishable, the survivors were meant to eat mostly canned food like vegetables and soups, proteins bars, cereals and a few other things.

 

Without electricity, it also limits their movement to the daylight, because it’s too dark in the night to travel in car or from a house to another. It would put them at risk and they couldn’t afford a member of their group.

 

They stopped to stretch and Madison took the wheel of the car to let Travis rest a bit, since she slept a little. Alicia was silently looking around at the abandoned areas, looking if there was anything interesting at all. There were only walkers shuffling towards the car, nothing else. It was boring – but boring was better than being in danger.

 

The blonde had fallen asleep again, thanks to being awake before the sunset and watching the brunette sleep. She leaned her head against the car’s head support, crossing her hands on her stomach. Alicia glanced at her with a brief smile, thinking that Elyza almost looked innocent.

 

* * *

 

Elyza is suddenly woken up when their car slows down abruptly. She hears the screeching tires and start wondering what is happening when there’s a violent impact, immobilizing their vehicle a few seconds later. She feels the need to throw up and tries to move, but there’s a sharp pain in her abdomen.

 

She realises what happened when Madison asks if one of them is hurt. The blonde feels the flood of tears on her cheeks and exhales sharply. “Fucking hell.” She looks down at her stomach and sees that it’s the seatbelt that hurt her that much. “What happened?” The Australian woman asks, trying to unbuckle her seatbelt. Damn thing.

 

They hear footsteps and Daniel is at the conductor’s side, asking the same thing than Madison, worried.

 

Elyza turns her head to look at Alicia, who grimaces in pain. There’s a bump on her head, she probably hit the front seat’s head support with the force of the impact. “You okay?” She asks, taking out her hunting knife to cut her seatbelt.

 

Alicia clenches her jaw. “I’m fine.” She tells Elyza, unbuckling easily. “What was that, Mom?”

 

Madison turns her head to look at her daughter. “We hit another car, it was speeding and I tried to avoid it, but I couldn’t.” The airbags didn’t deployed, gladly.

 

Elyza groans in pain when she finally is free, getting out of the car, looking around. The accident made a lot of noises and it surely alerted the nearest walkers. She hoped that there wasn’t a horde close, otherwise they could be in serious danger. When she is outside the car, she looks at the damages done to their van. Nope, it would surely not work again.

 

Her stomach hurts every time she makes a step, but she manages to walk somehow. Probably because of the adrenaline of the accident.

 

Four people get out of the other car. They seemed to be around Elyza and Alicia’s age. The group consisted of three men and one woman, looking as confused at them.

 

Ofelia walks towards one of the young man, whose nose was bleeding on his face and neck. “Are you okay?” She asks him gently, stopping a few meters away from him.

 

“Ofelia, do not talk to them!” Daniel snarls, walking towards his daughter.

 

“Dad, he’s hurt.”

 

The young man puts a hand under his nose and looks at the blood on his finger. “Dammit, I broke my nose again.” He sighs loudly, wiping his hand on his clothes.

 

Madison comes towards them with a confident gaze. “Which one of you was driving?” She demands with an angry voice.

 

The young man with the broken nose gives her a sorry smile. “Me. I’m sorry, I know I was speeding.”

 

“And that’s your only excuse? Really?” Travis says harshly, putting a hand on his forehead.

 

“Well, no, I never thought that I would meet another car and have an accident.” He says, grimacing. “I could have hit a rotter, but that wouldn’t have been a bad thing.”

 

Elyza turns on herself to look around, tightly gripping at her hunting knife. The accident happened a few minutes ago and they were out in the open; the walkers would be coming for them soon and they needed to move. “Madison, sorry to interrupt, but we need to move. We’re all little bit shaken. We’re not in a state to fight.”

 

“We need to get in the SUV and leave.” Alicia tells the group, seeing a walker coming from them. Her and Elyza takes care of it together, but the brunette notices that her friend is in pain. “Where does it hurts?”

 

“I’m okay.” Elyza tells to Alicia, giving her most convincing look to her. The younger woman doesn’t seem to buy any of this, but she doesn’t argue.

 

“Lysha is right, we need to leave. More are coming.” Chris says, jogging towards them.

 

“Wait!” The female stranger says. “You can’t fit eight in your car, you need to leave it. Follow us, we know a safe place a few streets from here, we were heading there.”

 

“Amanda, no! We don’t know them!” The second young male retorts, giving her a hard look.

 

“Ben, we crashed their car, we need to help them!” The girl, Amanda, argues. “And they’re right, we need to move.”

 

“No.”

 

The one with the broken nose rolls his eyes. “They’re survivors just like us, come on.” He takes a step towards Elyza and Alicia’s group. “I’m Jordan, sorry for this mess again.” He puts his hands in his pockets. “This is Amanda and Ben, the shy one is Anthony. Will you come with us?”

 

Travis, Madison and Daniel look at each other. Everyone already knows that the Salvadoran man disagrees with the idea of following strangers.

 

Alicia looks at the man named Jordan. “You said you know of a safe place?” He nods and the brunette looks back at the adults.

 

“Mom, we need to decide now!” Nick shouts, seeing as a horde is coming towards them. There are about twenty walkers, not much more, and they’re twelve standing in the middle of the road. Elyza knows they could have taken them easily if they weren’t still knocked up from the car accident.

 

“Follow them!” Travis tells the members of his group. They immediately start running, following the other four young adults.

 

Elyza knows that she wouldn’t keep up like that for a long time. Her stomach hurts a lot because of the seatbelt – the joy of sitting in the middle seat. She runs as fast as she can, but it doesn’t seem fast enough. Travis is running at her side, encouraging her silently to keep up with the group.

 

At least, they are faster than the horde of walkers behind them, but it would be better if they could outrun them. The man called Ben takes care of a walker coming in front of them and pushes its body out of their way.

 

“Cut by the forest, it’ll be faster!” Anthony yells.

 

Everyone follows him as he turns to enter the forest. The trees will slow the horde, that’s a thing, but it also slows them, because they need to avoid the said trees along with rocks, roots and branches.

 

Alicia thanks her gym class again for getting her into shape, otherwise she wouldn’t have made it far – the five minutes they sprinted exhausted her, but she still found the strength inside her to keep a good running pace.

 

Elyza, on the other hand, is still struggling. Travis helped her to ascend a small hill, knowing that something was wrong with the younger woman.

 

They all make it to the said safe house with a few small cuts and a lot of bruises, but they’re alive and that’s what matters. Alicia notices the sign saying ‘private property’ and thinks that they’re probably almost there; she wasn’t wrong. They see the large brick fences around a large house and they can’t help but feel relieved to finally arrive to their destination.

 

The group hurries to get on the other side of the wall. They are greeted at the gates by a man with mid-long hair and a beard, holding a gun in his hands. He looks at Jordan and shakes his head. “It’s the second time this week that you don’t bring back the car.” His tone is soft but they could all see the anger in his voice. He glances at Travis and frowns, then look back at the young man with the broken nose. “And you brought back new friends?”

 

“Uh, yes?” Jordan shrugs, trying to make this not big of a deal. “I kind of owe them.”

 

Travis walks towards the man, putting his pistol away. “I’m sorry we come unannounced, but we were short on options.” He explains. “I’m Travis.”

 

“Its okay, your group can stay for the night, if that is what you wish.” The man says. “I’m Mark. Jordan’s my son and the others are his friends. I believe he introduced them to you already.”

 

The group nod in unison as Travis continues talking. “This is my fiancée Madison and her children Alicia and Nick.” He points them. “And here’s Daniel and his daughter, Ofelia.”

 

“Where is Elyza?” Alicia wonders, looking around.

 

They all look at each other in confusion and found the girl lying on the grass, not far away from the group. Alicia rushes to the blonde, heart jumping in her chest at the idea that she could be seriously injured and possibly dying.

 

Alicia cups Elyza’s face and she opens her eyes, narrowing her eyes because of the sunlight. “Are you alright?” She says, gazing down on the blonde’s body, fearing to discover blood.

 

“I’m fine.” She mutters. “I just needed a nap.”

 

“For fuck’s sake, Elyza!” The brunette growls in frustration, getting up. “I hate you.”

 

* * *

 

The group is surprised by how welcoming Mark’s group is welcoming with them. They clearly understand how it is to survive and don’t hesitate to let them share their supply in food. Since they are well established in the property, they accumulated food and have a good stock for months, unlike Travis and Madison’s group, who simply pack the necessary food to survive while they ransack abandoned houses or cars. They can’t bring too much, otherwise it would encumber them and it wouldn’t be comfortable for their travel.

 

They meet other members of Mark’s group and they are very nice with them too, asking them to join them for diner. Daniel refuses politely and stays in one of the room Mark assigned to them. Ofelia excuses herself on her father’s behalf, explaining that he didn’t really trust anyone.

 

Alicia is still mad at Elyza for lying on the ground and scaring her. She doesn’t even glance at her during the diner, as she talks with Jordan. She learns that he’s two years older than her and was studying at the local university in advanced mathematics, along with Anthony. They both wanted to be teachers.

 

She admits to herself that he is cute without all the blood on his face, even if he has a black eye and his nose is swollen. It’s easy to notice that he’s a nervous person, talking with his hands and stuttering, but hey, it’s a guy trying to talk to a girl and she understands what it feels like to talk to someone new.

 

Chris is trying to impress Amanda with his latest scar and, when Alicia hears her stepbrother telling her the story, amplifying certain details, she scoffs, thinking that it’s a lame technique. On the other hand, Nick is talking with Ben and the young brunette is happy that he’s not tearing the house up and down to find anything that could be used as a drug. He was getting better and Alicia was glad for him.

 

Jordan asks Alicia how her group managed to survive all this time and she told him everything since the beginning; how her quarter was surrounded by military soldiers, then saving Nick from the hospital and how they ended up on Strand’s ship. She mentioned that Elyza became a member of their group about three weeks ago and he looked surprised. “You two look very close.”

 

Alicia shrugs, not wanting to talk too much about the blonde. “We’re good friends who’ve been through a lot, that’s all.”

 

Jordan is, Alicia learns that through the evening, a really funny guy. He likes to make jokes and has a really sweet smile. The brunette forces herself not to think how similar he was to Matt.

 

It’s getting late and a few people are retreating to their rooms. Someone from Mark’s group lights a candle and Alicia stops herself from saying that it could be dangerous. There was a large fence around the house and she doubted that the walkers could get through it.

 

“Hey, do you want to come to my room?” He asks, a small smile on his lips.

 

She knows it a certain form of invitation that couldn’t be taken lightly, but she nods her agreement, getting up and following him without second thoughts. Her mother isn’t there to watch her and Nick is already in his room. Chris only glances at her and continues flirting with Amanda.

 

Jordan’s room is the first room on the left when they get upstairs. He walks into the room and lights up a candle. It’s small, mostly because of the bed taking the entire place, but he looks comfortable. She wouldn’t be against staying in a house like this.

 

Alicia closes she door and gives him a small. “It’s a nice room.” She tells, getting closer to him.

 

“I lived in it all my life.” She answers, looking around. “It’s a pretty normal room.”

 

There’s an awkward silence that somehow manages to make Alicia a little nervous. They look at each other and Jordan takes the last step towards her.

 

He cups Alicia’s face with his hands and presses a delicate kiss on her lips. She is not surprised, knowing that this – them kissing – would have happened sooner or later. She saw clear in Jordan’s intentions as soon as he started a conversation with her.

 

She puts a hand behind his neck, bringing him closer and deepening the kiss. It soon becomes heated, Alicia biting gently the young man’s lower lip, sucking on in slightly. He presses their bodies together and pushes the brunette’s back against the wall.

 

When his hands moves to her waist, she releases a shaking breath. Jordan waits, looking at her for approval, then moves his mouth to her neck. She closes her eyes, appreciating the open-mouthed kisses on her lips. He shaved, but his beard was starting to grow again and it was scraping her delicate skin, making it feel as though it was on fire. He lowers his hands to her hips, gripping firmly.

 

He presses himself against her and Alicia can feel his hardness against her inner thigh, as he starts rocking against it. She is definitely aroused, but something in the back of her mind makes her come back to the reality. Jordan was only a stranger and she couldn’t sleep with him just like that. She might be getting over Matt’s death slowly, but this is not giving her the right to simply start having sex with any guy she came across. “Wait, Jordan…”

 

He hums, still kissing her neck a few times. “If you’re worried, I have condoms.” He murmurs. When he feels her shaking his head, he pulls away to look at her. “Are you alright?”

 

“I shouldn’t have agreed to come to your room.” She tells him, adverting her gaze. “You seem like a really nice guy, but I can’t do that.”

 

“Did I do something wrong?” He wonders, stepping back.

 

“No you didn’t.” Alicia shrugs. “It’s just… I don’t know. I’m sorry.”

 

“Hey, it’s okay. At least we didn’t do the do and you won’t regret anything.” He says, eliciting a smile. “Do you want me to escort you to your room?”

 

She shakes her head negatively. “I’ll find my way. Plus, you have a boner.”

 

“Oh, right.”

 

She forces herself not to giggles at the young man’s reaction, as she opens the door to leave the room.

 

* * *

 

When Elyza leaves the living room after diner to get to her room alone, she feels angry. Alicia didn’t wanted to talk to her, didn’t even dare _looking_ at her. Instead, the brunette shamelessly flirted with the guy that could have _killed_ all of them in the car accident. They only got lucky that Madison had good driving skills and managed to slow down, trying to avoid the car, before the crash.

 

She’s quite exhausted and wants to sleep it off, but when she gets under the warm blankets, she can’t close her eyes and feels even more pissed. She got used to sharing the bed with her friend and now Elyza was caught up with the feeling that Alicia would not return to her to sleep. She hates to know that she would probably end up sleeping alone, the brunette off to warm some stranger’s bed.

 

Is that jealousy? Probably. Elyza didn’t like that her friend choose someone else that night. If she wanted to be mad at the blonde and do something to prove a point, this wasn’t the best of ideas. She thought Alicia would have talked to her instead to fix the problem.

 

Elyza hits her head on the pillow several times before biting the insides of her cheek. She knew she shouldn’t have grown attached to anyone. She was supposed to stay with Alicia’s group for only a few days before getting back on her life of solitude.

 

She waits, not capable of closing her eyes. She is deeply lost in her thoughts when someone opens the door. It takes her back to reality and she lifts her head to see who it is.

 

It’s Alicia, looking at her with a weak sorry smile, shifting on her feet. She doesn’t know if she should enter the room or not. “Can I come in?” She questions, looking at the blonde.

 

Elyza nods and Alicia closes the door, making her way to the bed. She directly lays on her stomach, her head turned to be able to see her friend. She slowly removes her shoes, pushing them off the bed.

 

A silence settles and Elyza keeps staring at the ceiling. She doesn’t really want to talk about this, but Alicia seems like she wants to. “I’m sorry.” She tells the blonde, waiting for an answer. When her friend remains silent, she continues. “I didn’t want to yell at you.”

 

Bringing her lips into a small line, Elyza closes her eyes. “I’m sorry I scared you.”

 

“Why would you do something like that?” Alicia says. It’s only a rhetorical question this time. “It’s cruel. You could’ve been seriously injured.”

 

“Well, I’m not. Nothing to worry about.” It comes out a little bit colder than expected.

 

“Are you mad at me?” The brunette asks, narrowing her eyes.

 

“No.”

 

“Then why are you acting like this?”

 

“I… I don’t know. Sorry, okay?” She releases a long sigh. “It’s been a long day and I can’t even sleep.”

 

“You shouldn’t have taken a nap on the grass earlier, then.”

 

“Fuck you.” Elyza says, scowling.

 

Alicia quirks her eyebrows. “Rude.”

 

There’s another silence before the blonde starts speaking again, to the younger woman’s surprise. “Okay, I admit it… I’m mad at you.” She takes a deep breath and turning her head towards Alicia. “I hate that you choose a stranger over me.”

 

She rolls her eyes at Elyza. “Not to offend you, but it’s a good thing if I can talk to someone else. I get to spend days and nights with you.”

 

“Did you two just talk?” The blonde reluctantly asks. Alicia’s moment of hesitation betrays her and Elyza clenches her jaw, sending her a cold glare. “So you were about to spend the night in with a total stranger?”

  
Alicia sighs in exasperation. “Not that this concerns you…” She waits a few seconds as Elyza rolls on her back, avoiding the brunette’s eyes. “We kissed, but that’s all. I couldn’t do anything else, it didn’t feel right.” She chews on her lower lip.

 

“Okay.”

 

“Is that what got you mad, me sleeping with someone?”

 

“Can we just forget this and go to sleep?” Elyza asks quietly, pulling the blankets over her head.

 

“Fine.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so a few things happened, like the car accident, meeting a new group....
> 
> About this new group! You might have understood what I did already, If you haven't; the original characters are inspired by a few characters of The 100. 
> 
> \- Jordan: Jasper  
> \- Amanda: Octavia  
> \- Ben: Bellamy  
> \- Anthony: Monty  
> \- Mark: Marcus
> 
> There will be more interactions with them, but I need to remind you that, even if some of them are similar to The 100 characters, they're also different. Alicia/Jordan are not Lexa/Jasper (oh god no, I don't even imagine them myself). 
> 
> Tell me if you like it so far! If you have special request, I can see if it could match with the ideas I have and I'll gladly write them for you. 
> 
> On that note, I hope everyone enjoys so far and I'll try to get some ehhrr... correction done this weekend.


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A lot of stuff happens. It's mostly angst!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you want to follow me on tumblr, I'm thesilversouls. Don't be shy to come and talk to me!
> 
> For those who apologize for leaving long comments on my story, please don't be sorry! I love long comments! I also grab this opportunity to thank each of you for your enthousiasm for the fic. It touches me :)

Elyza doesn’t sleep much after her fight with Alicia the previous night. She tries her best not to toss and turn, not wanting to wake up the brunette, but it’s hard because she can’t be truly comfortable. She would usually sleep on her lap or on her sides, but her stomach hurts at a point where she thinks she might have something broken inside of her. The van’s middle seat’s seatbelt was only one support and not two – the one that’s normally in a ‘v’ shape and crosses the chest. When the car stopped abruptly, Elyza was propelled forward with an incredible force. The only thing preventing her to hit the windshield was the seatbelt. She was thankful for wearing it, but that damn thing also gave her a lot of bruises on her stomach.

 

Only to add to her bad luck, it’s start raining outside. The branches of the trees are hitting the house and it resonates inside their assigned room. Elyza represses a groan of frustration. Now, it was evident that she wouldn’t fall asleep. She has no idea what time it is, but she knows it’s till in the middle of the night.

 

She gives up staying in bed at Alicia’s side. She doesn’t want her friend to wake up, she doesn’t want to talk to her, not wanting to continue their previous discussion where they stopped. Elyza didn’t want to think about the brunette sleeping with that Jordan boy they just met. It wasn’t the time to get attached to anyone in Mark’s group, because they were leaving soon. Well, not soon enough. She doubted Travis, Madison and Daniel would want to leave this fancy ass house in the middle of a storm. It wasn’t safe enough and they were still banged up from the accident – which was caused by _Jordan_.

 

She silently makes her way downstairs, arms crossed on her chest. There was light in the living room and she thought someone might have forgotten to blow it before going to bed.

 

When she enters the living room, there is a young woman sitting on the couch, perched on a sketchbook. It immediately intrigues her and she decides to engage the conversation. Elyza saw her at diner from afar and heard her name, but she couldn’t remember it. “Hey.” She says with a soft voice. The woman, a brunette with a tanned skin, freezes a moment and turns her head towards her. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you.”

 

She looks curiously at Elyza. “You didn’t scare me, you surprised me.”

 

The blonde gives her a smirk. “That’s pretty much the same.”

 

“… Okay.” The tanned woman looks at her intensively, seeming like she was waiting for Elyza to talk, but she doesn’t. “What do you want?”

 

She’s direct, no doubt in that and it amuses Elyza. “I couldn’t sleep, so I came downstairs. Turns out you were there.” She sits on another couch. “I’m Elyza.”

 

“Lindsey.”

 

“I see that you’re not much of a talker.” She insists. Her only response is an annoyed eye-roll. “You can’t sleep either, am I right?

 

“I am more productive when nobody _distracts_ me. I just stay up later than the others, that’s all.” She says, gazing at the sketchbook.

 

“Are you drawing something?”

 

Lindsey clenches her jaw and release a sharp breath. “I’m drawing plans for reinforcing our defenses against the walkers.”

 

“So you’re like, an architect or something?”

 

“Nope, I’m a mechanic… but I’m also the only one with some drawing skills in here.” She taps her pencil against the sketchbook and looks at Elyza. “Why do you care?”

 

The said mechanic is truly beautiful; long and dark brown hair, tall and slim. Elyza easily guess that she is from Mexican origins or something close. She wears a blue navy t-shirt with a V-neck, enough for the blonde to peek at her cleavage. Lindsey is totally her type and she wouldn’t mind getting lost in her eyes. “I was just trying to start a conversation. Am I that bad?” Elyza asks, gazing back to the brunette’s face.

 

“Yup.”

 

“You’re not helping me, here.” She says, lips forming a pout.

 

“Oh my god, how old are you?” Lindsey growls in frustration, scolding. This wasn’t a really good start for a chapter.

 

Elyza smiles mischievously. “Seventeen.”

 

“Then fucking act like it.”

 

The blonde gets up from the couch to move to the other, where Lindsey is currently sitting. The other young woman stares at her like she is going to _murder_ Elyza right there. “What the fuck do you think you’re doing?”

 

Elyza shoves her hand in her pocket and pulls out a candy. She drops it on the brunette’s sketchpad with a wide smile. “This, my dear, is a peace offering.”

 

“…?”

 

“It’s a candy.” She nods, pointing at it. “It might not be a Snickers, but you turn into a diva when you’re hungry.” Then she sees it. The hint of a smile on Lindsey’s lips. A minor victory.

 

“I’m not hungry.” She tells Elyza, picking up the candy and putting it on the armrest.

 

“Then are you on your period or you’re just sexually frustrated?” She says, bold. The brunette’s eyes widens instantly and she lets out a chuckle of amusement. “I’m kidding.” She puts her hands on her chest and waits a few seconds, whispering enough for Lindsey to hear: “Or maybe I’m not.”

 

“Do you know you’re very weird?”

 

“I believe it’s a compliment?” She asks, looking in dark brown eyes.

 

The brunette huffs in annoyance. “How do people even stand you?”

 

“They don’t, they’re stuck with me.”

 

* * *

 

Alicia wakes up the sound of thunder, disoriented for an instant, she fears the worse. Once she realises that she’s in Mark’s house, safer than outside, her heartbeat calms to a steady rhythm. She feels that the other side of the bed is cold and turns her head to find it empty. Then Alicia is reminded by another thundering sound that Elyza can’t sleep for some reasons while it’s storming outside.

 

She is torn between wanting to search for her friend and stay in the bed; the conversation, just before they went to sleep, was very… intense, to say the least. She didn’t wanted it to end like this, she wanted to talk with Elyza to understand a few things, but the blonde cut her off, clearly not wanting to push the conversation. It intrigued Alicia, but she stopped herself from asking more questions. She never had to deal with this kind of situation with Elyza before and she didn’t wanted to invade her friend’s privacy.

 

The brunette doesn’t quite understand why they were fighting. She knew Elyza didn’t like that she had a moment with Jordan, she clearly admitted that last night. But why make a scene? If she was disappointed in Alicia, she could’ve just said it instead. She didn’t like to be ignored and replaced by some guy from a group of survivors they just met.

 

But it wasn’t of Elyza’s concern. If Alicia wanted to sleep with every stranger they come across to on the road, it wasn’t her friend’s problem at all. She is old enough to make her own decisions and take the necessary precautions. She has a head on her shoulders, after all.

 

She thinks that it might be jealousy for a second, but shakes the idea out of her head; Elyza might be interested in girls, but that doesn’t mean that she is interested in _her_. They are friends. Supposing that the blonde would like Alicia would only amplify the stereotype that every queer girls – to not put a label on Elyza’s sexuality – would be attracted to any girls. The brunette never had a problem with another person’s sexuality, because she is open-minded.

 

She gets up and presses a hand on her face to wake herself up a little. It would be better to get up and see if Elyza was fine, maybe try to have just a regular conversation with her.

 

Alicia abandons the warmth of her bed, feet touching the cold creaking floor. She moves slowly, still pretty asleep, making her way into the hallway. She doesn’t know where Elyza could be, but she decides to start with the living room; it was the first place she thought of. She walks down the stairwells and sees a weak light coming from her destination. _That must be where she is_ , Alicia thinks. She moves slowly, moving the corner.

 

She stops when she finds the blonde, who is not alone.

 

* * *

 

If you’d ask Elyza, she’d say that she honestly had no ideas how things escalated this quick between Lindsey and her. Sure, she had been teasing the brunette for a while, being flirtatious and all, but she never thought that it would actually end up with the mechanic girl pinned underneath her.

 

For her defense, it wasn’t her that made the first move. She didn’t expect it at all and, in fact, she was just joking when she asked Lindsey if she was sexually frustrated. It turned out that she was.

 

First, she pulled Elyza in a rough kiss, leaving the blonde wanting for more. For someone that didn’t expect this reaction from an assumed straight girl, Elyza caught up with the situation quickly and deepened the kiss eagerly. Lindsey tossed her sketchbook away and pulled the young woman into her, greedy.

 

When they break the kiss, they are both out of breath and look into each other’s eyes. Elyza smirks at the brunette and quirks her eyebrows. “What is this all about?”

 

Lindsey licks her lower lips, gazing down at the blonde’s mouth. “I want to make out.”

 

“Obviously.” Elyza replies smugly. “I thought I annoyed you.”

 

“You _are_ annoying me.” Lindsey retorts.

 

“Good.”

 

They start kissing each other again and Elyza pushes Lindsey back against the couch. Following the movement, the blonde slips a thigh between the other woman’s legs, pressing it against her center. She can already feel the heat irradiating from her core. She hears that catch of a breath when she pulls apart, an encouragement for more.

 

She sucks on the brunette’s swollen lips and licks it, her tongue wanting access. When it is granted, she finds Lindsey’s tongue and is pleased to see that it is pierced. It gives her mind a tons of ideas.

 

Lindsey slips a hand through her hair and grabs a few strands, pulling Elyza’s head back, a moan leaving her lips. God knows how she likes to have her hair pulled like this. She looks down at the brunette, who stares at her intensively.

 

“I’m not into girls.” Lindsey says in a husky voice. “But I’ll make an exception for you because you look hot and I’m super horny.”

 

Elyza rolls her eyes. “And that’s when you tell me that you’re not going to reciprocate?” Lindsey nods and the blonde feels a little disappointed, but understands. “Fine to me.”

 

“Okay, now stop talking.” The other woman almost pleads. Elyza grins mischievously and applies more pressure with her thigh on Lindsey’s center. “Fuck.”

 

“Can I at least make myself come while I finger you?” She murmurs in the girl’s ears, definitely making her shiver.

 

It takes a few seconds before she has an answer. “As you wish, but get down to it, woman.” She tells her, making Elyza chuckle lowly. Lindsey wouldn’t stand it if the blonde teased her too much and she would get irritated. She decided it would be the best for them both to skip the foreplay. She knows she’s dripping already.

 

First, she undoes the button of her own jeans and slips a hand under the waistband of her panties, finding her wet center and releasing a soft sigh of pleasure. Elyza slips her good hand in Lindsey’s panties and find the fabric soaked with her arousal. “I’m glad I’m the exception.” She says, sliding her fingers against the brunette’s bundle of nerves. She reacts immediately, releasing a soft moan and Elyza only desires to hear this sound again but louder. She doesn’t care if they’re in a house full of persons, she wants to prove that she made a straight girl come apart underneath her.

 

* * *

 

That is exactly when Alicia finds them, though she doesn’t see Elyza touching herself. It’s already enough to see her on top of this stranger girl, doing exactly what she reproached the brunette of doing a few hours before. Alicia had every reasons to see red. She had hoped her friend would have a head on her shoulder and think twice before getting underneath – or on top of – someone, but it seemed like she didn’t care that they had a fight about this.

 

She thinks that Elyza is selfish enough to forget their fight in a stranger’s arms. That she means nothing for the blonde. This is just a lame low blow.

 

She turns on her heels, furious, and thinks for a second that she could go back to Jordan to finish what they started. This way, Elyza and her would be even, though this wouldn’t solve any of their problems. The blonde and the stranger between her legs didn’t even notice her standing three meters from them, too occupied in their making out session.

 

There’s an angry tear threatened to fall down her cheek and she immediately wipes it out. Thinking that going back to Jordan’s room wouldn’t fix anything about the situation, Alicia makes her way to her brother’s assigned room, the one right next to hers. She doesn’t bother knocking, because she knows he’ll be asleep, unlike her.  

 

He stirs when he hears the door open and lifts his head to look at her. He recognizes her angry scowl and sits up in the bed. Alicia doesn’t have to ask before making her way on the bed, under the blankets.

 

Nick rubs his eyes and then glances at his younger sister. “Hey, what’s up?”

 

“I got into a fight with Elyza. I don’t necessarily wish to talk about it.” She sighs. “I can’t sleep.”

 

“You can stay. I doubt Chris will be coming back for the night.” He tells her, a smug grin on his lips.

 

Alicia remembers that her stepbrother flirted with the girl named Amanda, the one from the car accident. He must be spending the night in her room and Alicia doesn’t want to have mental images of Chris with a girl – or literally with anybody. “Okay.” The brunette tells his brother, stuffing her face in the pillow. They tell each other goodnight, then Nick falls back asleep and Alicia stays silent until she finds sleep again.

 

* * *

 

The morning after, it’s still raining outside and Alicia couldn’t care less. She just doesn’t want to be bothered by anyone – especially by Elyza. Not after what she witnessed the night before. She doesn’t even get up of bed, not finding the strength to face a room full of strangers, to face the girl that was underneath Elyza when Alicia found her in the living room.

 

Nick doesn’t ask any question as he sees the dark look his sister gives him in the morning, when he was about to ask for some details. She doesn’t want to talk or think about that, because Elyza had betrayed her trust by doing even worse than what she reprimanded Alicia of doing with Jordan.

 

Madison comes into the room after noon, bringing food with her. Alicia declines everything her mother tries to make her eat, claiming that it wasn’t healthy to stop eating because of a fight between Elyza and her.

 

“Sweetie, we’re leaving soon.” She tells her daughter, sitting at the edge of the bed.

 

It had started raining suddenly, just as it started. “Okay.” Alicia simply answers.

 

“I want you to eat something that’ll sustain your stomach for the walk.” Madison puts the cereal bag in front of the young brunette. “We don’t know when we’ll be able to eat. I suggest you enjoy this last meal, Alicia.”

 

She replies a brief ‘fine’ before starting to eat the goddamn cereal her mom is waving underneath her nose. She’s not even hungry, but she obeys Madison to make her happy. “Now, are you gonna tell me what happened between Elyza and you? Nick mentioned you had a fight.”

 

“I won’t wanna talk about it, Mom.”

 

“You know that you can always trust me, right?”

 

“Yeah, yeah.” Alicia answers. 

 

* * *

 

Alicia and Elyza’s group leaves when the brunette finally comes downstairs. She doesn’t even glance once at her friend, just following Madison silently.

 

Elyza wonders why Alicia still looks mad at her; even though they spoke yesterday and everything seemed okay. Not necessarily alright, but it was a start. The blonde tries to retrieve information from Nick, but he’s as cold as a rock with her, answering her by yes, no or the shortest answer he can give to her.

 

They’re not alone to leave Mark’s house; his son Jordan and his friends, Anthony, Amanda and Ben are with them, along with Lindsey. When they told Travis’s group that they’ll help them find a car, Alicia gathered everything in her not to snort at them and insult Lindsey – who frankly wouldn’t deserve to be treated in such a way.

 

Ben looks even angrier than Alicia is when he sees Amanda leaving his side to talk to Chris. He seems like an overprotective brother and his sister seems pleased to make him go crazy, never following his rules and warnings.

 

They’re making their way back to the SUV, because it was still very functional. They knew it was a risk to come back on their own trails, according to the amount of walkers that chased them after the accident. If the encountered too many of them, they would definitely turn back and take another route – and even consider abandoning the SUV for good. It was only a car, after all. Not worth putting themselves in danger for.

 

Jordan walks up to Alicia, giving her a soft smile. She smiles back at him, thinking that it would be rude otherwise. She wasn’t mad at him, after all, but at Elyza. “Hey, did you sleep well?” He asks her, shoving his hands in his pockets.

 

“Not that much, but I guess I’ll sleep as soon as we’ll be on the road again.” She answers, looking around. They were walking slowly in the forest and they could hear every walkers coming towards them. The adults – and Ben – were taking care of them. 

 

“Is that about… last night?”

 

He is worried, Alicia understands. “No, the storm kept me awake, I guess.” She turns her head to look at him. “I think that, if it wasn’t for that shithole we live in, but back before the outburst, I would have liked you a lot.”

 

“We would probably have never met, though.” He tells her, blushing slightly. “I was always in the library, with my head in the books.”

 

“And you think I would be somewhere else than the library?” She quirks her eyebrows. “I studied all the time, really.”

 

He nods his head, his smile widening. “I’m sorry, I judged.”

 

“I totally knew you were a bookworm.”

 

“Hey! Stereotypes much.” He says, looking falsely offended. “Here I thought you were a nice person.” He teases Alicia gently.

 

She breathes out a chuckle. “Sorry, I’m not.” She tells him, nudging him in the ribs.

 

* * *

 

Surprisingly, they make it back to where they had the car accident without a lot of trouble. Sure, there were walkers on their way, but they quickly managed to permanently kill them. Nick almost puke when he saw one female infected coming towards him, shuffling slowly; her stomach was open – she had probably been devoured by her now walker buddies – and her guts were spilling out of it. It was disgusting, yes.

 

Alicia regrets that she has to leave Jordan, because he really seems like a nice guy and she would have love to get to know him as a friend. Unfortunately, they’re about to part ways to survive on their own.

 

Travis agreed to stay a little to help them find a working car, before they take their own route. The young members of Mark’s group are opening car doors, looking inside to see if there’s the keys somewhere.

 

Alicia’s blood goes cold when she hears Jasper let out a cry of pain. She had been talking to her mother about stopping somewhere for supplies. Elyza, who was the closest to the young man, ran towards him to see what was happening.

 

A walker. Of course it’s a fucking walker.

 

It’s a fucking walker that probably had been hit by a car and had a broken spine and had to drag its body on the ground to move. Honestly, Elyza would have probably never killed it, because it was useless without its legs. Well, not totally, now that it had made enough distance to close its mouth around Jordan’s calf, when he opened a car’s door.

 

The blonde took care of the undead and looked down at the open wound, blood rushing out and soaking the fabric of his jeans. It was definitely a bite, and a very painful one according to Jordan’s whines of pain.

 

Jordan looks at Alicia with an expression that can be judged as terrified. He obviously knows what it means when someone is bitten by a rotter. He’s going to die and he didn’t have much time on his hands. He smiles at him, sweat forming on his forehead. 

 

“Jordan!” Amanda stares at the bite in his calf and looks up at him. “We should hurry up to get you back at your father.”

 

He nods and releases a breath. “Hey, at least… I got the keys.” He says with a shaky voice, raising his hands to show them.

 

“We should go.” Travis says, putting a hand on Alicia’s shoulder.

 

She looks at him reluctantly. “Just give me thirty seconds, okay?”

 

She doesn’t even wait for his approval to walk towards Jordan, enveloping her hands around his neck to bring him in a tight hug. “I’m sorry.” She tells him, pressing her face against his chest.

 

Jordan lets out a wet chuckle, tears forming in his eyes. He shushes her, returning the hug. “Don’t worry for me, just take care of yourself, would you?” She nods and he smiles weakly. “I’m glad I got to meet you. Have to say you were the highlight of my last two days on Earth.” He murmurs, so as she’s the only one hearing his words.

 

Alicia feels her throat tightens and she adverts her gaze for a second. “I’m glad I met you too, Jordan.” She bites her lower lip. “We have to go.”

 

“I know.” He sighs, a tear falling down his cheek.

 

She nods and turns her back on him, trying not to let the tears spill out. She is stopped by a firm hand on his shoulder, forcing her to turn towards him.

 

He closes the distance between them and puts his lips on hers. It’s a simple goodbye kiss, but she knows it must mean something else for him. He looks one last time at her and closes his eyes. “Thank you, Alicia.”

 

When she turns again, Elyza is there, looking at her and Jordan. She looks sad too, touched by the scene. She walks to him and puts a candy out of her pocket. “Be careful while getting home.” She gives him the lollipop, a faint smile on her face.

 

He takes the candy and wipes his cheeks with his sleeves. “Take care too.”

 

Elyza feels bad about her fight with Alicia, because it mostly was about Jordan. He didn’t deserved this at all.

 

Alicia looks at her mother, who’s holding Travis’s hand tightly, touched by the scene that happened under her eyes. Madison knew that the young man would inevitably die of that bite, but she hope he would get to his father in time to say his goodbyes.

 

Jordan’s friend is crying, even Ben – though he does it silently, compared to Amanda. Anthony is probably the one that looks the most affected by his friend’s wound. Throat tight, he cries and can’t stop the flood on his puffy red cheeks. Everyone understands that he doesn’t want accept his best friend’s imminent death.

 

They all tell each other goodbyes and get inside their respective vehicles. They fit eight in the SUV; two at the front, Daniel at the wheel, Travis on the passenger’s side. In the backseat, there’s Nick, Ofelia, Chris and Madison. They are squeezed pretty tightly, but it’s better than nothing. They wouldn’t drive more than fifteen minutes, just enough to put some distance with the place where they had the collision with Jordan’s car.

 

Alicia and Elyza are at the back, sitting in the SUV’s back, in the trunk. They can still see and talk with the other members of their group, but no one wants to talk. The young brunette is still trying to contain her tears.

 

She doesn’t speak to the blonde, even if they’re sitting together, touching each other. She is still mat at her for sleeping with Lindsey, but now all she can think is Jordan’s death and how he didn’t deserved that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I cried writing Jordan's death and he wasn't a very important character, I can't even imagine myself writing a major character's death... I wonder who can do that? Oh, JRothenhell, yeah...
> 
> Tell me about the Elyza/Lindsey scene, I want to know who likes it or who doesn't, if it was too much, etc. :)


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alicia and Elyza are finally facing each other and it's not super cute. 
> 
> FYI: This is a short chapter because I had a busy day and I'm waking up at 6 a.m. tomorrow for work. I have an assignment due for Monday afternoon, therefore I will focus on that before starting the next chapter.

Two days has passed since their goodbyes to Jordan and the other members of Mark’s group. Alicia is still feeling sad about what happened to the young man and she hopes that he got to his father and no one else had gotten hurt. She hopes he got to say proper goodbyes to his family and friends and his death was quick and without pain.

 

Alicia had the feeling of déjà vu, remembering herself that time when she had sneaked in the Sale’s house to find Matt with a burning fever, laying in his bed. He had been incapable of moving since then, telling her that his whole body wasn’t cooperating anymore. Jordan’s death was just a painful reminder to the brunette; the people around her were dying and that even before the outbreak; first it was her father in a car accident, then it was Matt with a walker’s bite and now the same thing happened but with Jordan, a young man that didn’t deserve this fatal end at all.

 

The group finds another car with the fuel tank full. This time, it is a large black sedan with very comfortable seats. Nick decides to ride with his parents in this new vehicle and Alicia doesn’t hesitate to go with them. It’s obvious that she doesn’t want to talk to Elyza, the fresh memory of her over Lindsey still too well anchored in the brunette’s mind. Alicia is very grateful that Elyza doesn’t try to get in the car with her, because she would have been as cold as a stone with her anyways.  

 

Elyza feels her chest tightening when she sees Alicia choosing to ride with her family. After Jordan’s bite, she thinks it’s a rational behaviour to stay around her parents, trying to find comfort in their presence. The brunette probably didn’t want to talk to anyone either.

 

The group stays on the road for most of the day, stopping only when the sun is starting to come down. None of them wants to start looking around for a possible house to sleep in when it’s getting dark outside. They know all too well the risk, especially now that they assisted to Jordan’s bite, his sentence to death.

 

They search a couple of houses and they finally find one that is completely inhabited; no walkers inside. It’s a smaller house than the ones they’ve slept in before, but that will do the thing for only one night of sleep. They can finally take a deep breath and allow themselves to relax, because they are all very exhausted.

 

The house doesn’t have a lot of bedrooms; only two, that the three adults and Ofelia decides to occupy for the night. The youngest members of the group are bound to sleep on the couches around the house. Alicia retaliates to what seems to have been a computer room, leaving her backpack on the ground. The couch is quite small, but she had slept on worse than a couch before, especially since the outbreak. Sleeping on makeshift bed had been horrible for back pain. She is very thankful to be able to sleep on a couch.

 

She brought with her, in the room, an open canned food, which she eats directly from. If she retreated to the small room to eat, it was because she wanted to be left alone. Her thoughts are still directed to Elyza; she still hasn’t talked to her since they hit the road, after Jordan’s bite, and Alicia didn’t particularly want to have a conversation with her. First of all, she doesn’t even know how to start it.

 

When the blonde knocks and pushes the door, not waiting for an answer. She leans against the frame, her head poking out, her eyes finding immediately Alicia’s. The brunet releases an annoyed sigh. “What do you want?” Her tone is meant to be cold and it makes the blonde gulp nervously.

 

Elyza reluctantly answers the blonde’s question. “… I wanted to eat with you.”

 

Alicia refrains herself from rolling her eyes, while she sits on the couch. A part of herself wants to spend time with the blonde; she missed her and the stupid smirks she gives her all the time. She misses her friend, but they still had a fight and Alicia wouldn’t forgive Elyza in the bat of an eye. The brunette is one to hold her ground when she wants to make her point.

 

“I don’t particularly want to be with anyone right now.” She tells the blonde.

 

Elyza thinks that the brunette is feeding her bullshit; she is avoiding her and there was a reason behind it. She can feel that it’s something else than the whole thing with Jordan, the one thing they fought about only two days ago, no. This is something else and Elyza feels that it’s something about her that bothers Alicia, but instead of talking with her, she just decided to avoid her. She couldn’t avoid her forever, right?

 

“It’s a good thing I’m not just anyone then, eh?” The blonde gives a weak smile to Alicia, pushing the door open. Her friend doesn’t protest, but Elyza sees the clench of her jaw, indicating that she wasn’t pleased with the young Australian woman invading her space when she wants to be alone. “We didn’t hang since before the car accident. I might start to think that you’re avoiding me, Alicia.” She tells her teasingly, forcing a smile. She’s only trying to clear the air.

 

It’s not an accusation towards Alicia, but she takes it this way. “Maybe I have been.” She simply says, adverting her gaze.

 

Elyza’s eyes widen in surprise, not thinking that her friend would say something like this. She doesn’t seem mad, but she remains unfazed and the blonde knows too well that Alicia his trying to hide her emotions. She shoves her hands in her pockets, trying to stay casual and not overthink what all of this means. “Can you tell me why?” She asks, trying to look in the brunette’s eyes, but she lowers her gaze, not wanting to meet her eyes.

 

“I don’t know, you tell me.”

 

She waits a few seconds before answering. “What’s that supposed to mean?” She wonders, walking to sit on the couch. Alicia seems still mad at her and Elyza tries to figure out why. She thought that they were above the Jordan situation they fought over.

 

When Alicia doesn’t answer, Elyza releases a sigh. She was annoyed that her friend didn’t want to give her a response. “I suppose you’re still mad about… you know, the whole Jordan thing?”

 

The brunette feels her chest tightens at the mention of the now probably dead young man. She knows that she’s getting emotional for someone she only spend a few moments with and that she couldn’t afford be sad for too long over the death of someone, but she really liked him and he deserved better than being bitten by a walker. She can’t even imagine the relief in Mark’s eyes when he sees his son coming back, only to know that his time was not limited to a few hours, a day at the most.

 

But no, she is not mad about the whole Jordan thing. She shakes her head, putting food on her mouth. She takes her time, chewing slowly, feeling her friend getting frustrated because she didn’t want to explain what she is pissed about.

 

“Are you really going to give me the silent treatment, Alicia?” Elyza quirks her eyebrows, hoping that the brunette will answer to her, because her silence wasn’t fixing what needs to be fixed between them – which she stills has no idea of what she has done for all she knows.

 

Alicia puts her canned food on the table right next to the couch. “Okay, so now you want to talk about this?” The blonde nods and she continues. “You were mad at me when I spent the evening with Jordan. Why?”

 

Elyza knows that there’s no way to go around the question, she simply needs to be honest. “… You were mad at me because I fell asleep on the ground and thought I was dead or injured.” She starts. Alicia remains unfazed. “You ignored me for the entire time we were at Mark’s.”

 

“False. When I came back to the room, I _tried_ to talk to you, but as soon as I told you that Jordan and I kissed, you totally shut off.” Alicia tilts her head to the side, quirking her eyebrows to accentuate her point. By the look of acknowledgement on Elyza’s face, the brunette understand that she hit the soft spot. “So don’t put the blame on me!” She tells her, raising her voice.

 

“You can’t tell me that you’ve been avoiding me, for _two whole fucking days_ , because you got mad at me for, what, me getting mad at you?!” She counters, gesticulating, pointing Alicia and then herself.

 

“No, that I’m not.” The brunette snarls at Elyza. “You have _no fucking_ idea, don’t you?”

 

“What I don’t understand is your insistence; no, I don’t have any damn idea of what you’re talking about.” She growls in frustration. “Can you just stop acting like a bloody child and tell me?”

 

Alicia releases a cold laugh. “Okay, I’ll tell you.” She takes a deep breath and continues. “When I came back to the room, after spending the evening with Jordan, you avoided my question when I asked you if you got mad because of the idea of me sleeping with someone.” She looks in Elyza’s eyes. “You remember what you told me after that?” Elyza nods. “You told me that you didn’t want to talk about it.”

 

“Yeah, because I didn’t want to talk about it.”

 

“You also mentioned that you were mad because I chose a stranger over you. You were _mad_ because you thought I was about to sleep with him or something.” It’s Elyza’s turn to clench her jaw.

 

“Stop beating around the bush, for fuck’s sake!”

 

“You get to judge me when I want to spend time with a guy, you’re mad against me because I chose him over you that night. When I wanted to talk about it, you shut me off.” She bites her lower lip in frustration. “But the second I’m asleep, you’re leaving the bed to go and fuck a stranger.”

 

Elyza’s mouth hangs open for a second, understanding what Alicia caught her when she was getting Lindsey and herself off, in the middle of the living room. “That’s a whole other thing!” She counters, scolding.

 

“Care to elaborate about it?” Alicia asks, raising her chin defiantly. “I don’t see what’s different between Jordan and I, or that girl and you.” She brings her lips together in a fine line. “Oh, maybe the difference is that you _fucked_ her.”

 

“My sex life doesn’t is none of your concern.”

 

“But mine’s yours?” The brunette passes a hand over her face, trying to get rid of that frustration building inside of her. “Friends are not objects, Elyza, and you can’t dictate me what I can do or not!”

 

The blonde gets up, shaking her head. “I’m done with this conversation.”

 

“I’m not!” Alicia gets up and pushes Elyza’s shoulders, startling her. The blonde’s back hits the wall and she looks at her. “You don’t get to decide when this conversation is over!”

 

“Yes I do.”

 

“You’re fucking selfish.”

 

Elyza crosses her arms on her chest and replies: “We’re in a fucking hellhole, there are zombies literally trying to fucking eat us alive, we don’t know how lucky we are to simply breathe air… and you’re accusing me of being selfish?” She growls. “Damn right I’ll be selfish. You think we’ll get through all of this? That everything’s going back to normal and that we’ll never be worried about putting a foot outside without fearing for our lives?” Elyza snorts in anger. “They’re gonna get us all, it’s only a matter of time. Until then, I’ll try my best to protect the ones I care about, even if it means to try to stop a stranger from hurting you.”

 

Alicia presses two fingers on the blonde’s shoulder, keeping her against the wall. “You don’t get to decide any of that!” She takes a step forward, looking in Elyza’s eyes from only a foot from distance. “If I want to have sex with a stranger, that’s none of your business. If I want to jump in a horde of walkers, that’s also not your decision. I’m perfectly capable of deciding what’s best for me!” She says, raising her voice again. Alicia knew that the others could hear them, but she didn’t care about it for the moment.

 

“Then explain me why you were angry finding about Linsdey and I.”

 

Elyza’s last words makes her stomach churns. ‘Lindsey and I’. “I wasn’t angry because you had sex with a stranger.” She lowers her voice and adverts her gaze for only a second. “You were angry at me for kissing Jordan, you shut me off and the next thing you do is sleep with her, for the _exact same reason_ you were mad at me just a few moments before. You’re such a hypocrite.”

 

The blonde’s voice softens as soon as Alicia lowers her voice. “I didn’t really to do that against you, it’s not like I planned this… It just happened, with Lindsey, that’s all.”

 

“It felt like you were betraying me.” She releases a shaky breath and tries to compose herself.

 

“I’m sorry, Alicia.”

 

“Can I…” Her eyes fall down to Elyza’s lips for a second and gets back to the beautiful ocean blue eyes. “Ask you a question?”

 

“Sure?”

 

“Were you… jealous?”

 

Elyza’s eyes widens at the word. “I prefer the term protective.”

 

Alicia releases a chuckle and lowers her hands to her own hips, shoving her thumbs in the pocket of her jeans. “You didn’t need to feel the need to _protect_ Chris when he slept with Amanda.”

 

“That’s because the kid serious… - wait, _what_?”

 

“You didn’t even noticed him flirting, am I right?” Elyza only answers by shrugging. “This either tells me you’re _jealous_ or you don’t care about Chris.”

 

“… I’m not jealous.”

 

“Keep telling yourself that.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, wow. I'm not used to write a fight between two persons, so I hope it's not sloppy or anything and that it actually makes sense. 
> 
> Thanks everyone for the comments, kudos and bookmarks (and comments). I love to read every comment, ESPECIALLY the really long ones, and see your enthusiasm. You guys are awesome and I'm sorry you have to read this unbeta-ed. You know what's really cool though? That my first language is French, that I write stories in English and that you guys still manage to understand what I'm writing. *high five myself*


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There's just so much going on in this chapter. I haven't finished my assignment yet. 
> 
> WARNING: prepare yourself.

The realisation that she was, indeed, jealous echoes in Elyza’s head. How the fuck didn’t she acknowledge this crucial information before? It’s not like it’s the first time that it ever happened; she still painfully remembers how deeply in love she was with her best friend. It started the same way; she couldn’t even stand Henry and she eventually picked up on the feelings. Now, Alicia declared that she was jealous rather than protective and Elyza sees clear in the revelation itself.

 

She has feelings for the brunette, who she saved three weeks ago, the one she trusted to carry her precious pistols, in order to have a weapon to defend herself if she was caught in a bad situation. Elyza loves the smile that forms at the corners of Alicia’s mouth when she makes a funny comment. The blonde is somehow afraid to think of the long-term, because what happens if something happens to Alicia and she can’t be there to save her?

 

The moment when she got mad at her friend because she almost slept with Jordan, Elyza should have understood that she started to have feelings. She can only blame herself for that; Alicia reminds her of Fiona so much and she can’t help but compare them. Alicia, even though she doesn’t express herself a lot, is a very caring young woman and Elyza can read her like she reads a book. Fiona, on the other hand, was a very talkative person and always tried her best to please everyone.

 

Fiona never really knew that Elyza had feelings for her. She might had suspected it at least, but the blonde had always been very secretive about her love life. With her best friend living on another continent, they still talked but Elyza never had the chance to come out to her. Being in love with her best friend meant she never like the idea of seeing other girls; it wouldn’t have felt right, because she didn’t want to give false expectations to anyone. When she came to Los Angeles to spend time with Fiona, the blonde couldn’t gather the courage to come out to her. She knew she would have never heard the end of it, because her best friend would have felt betrayed and untrustworthy, which was not the reason Elyza kept her mouth shut about it. Yes, she was scared, but she couldn’t tell her that she was gay without thinking that it would ruin their friendship. They never talked about homosexuality, they were always avoiding the conversation, the reason being because Elyza didn’t want to accidentally tell Fiona that she had feelings for her.

 

Elyza thinks that, as similar as the two young woman are, the situation is completely different. Alicia already knows about her sexuality and they never really discussed it – except from now, when the brunette accused her of sleeping with Lindsey. Elyza didn’t want to really elaborate on the subject either. It was already enough for Alicia to know that they got into a fight because of her jealousy.

 

They talked for a little while after their second fight, Elyza cautiously trying to avoid to talk about this jealousy thing she had. She doesn’t wish to elaborate about this, because she knows her chances with Alicia are probably more than inexistent. After losing track of time – they talked for hours about everything and nothing, like they usually do – Elyza yawns then claims that she’s tired and should go to bed.

 

She swears that she saw the disappointment in Alicia’s eyes, though her face remained perfectly neutral. Elyza swears that the other woman has almost mastered the art of hiding her emotions. They told each other to sleep well and the blonde left right after that, looking back just before closing the door. Alicia was watching her, the corners of her lips twitching into a smile. It made Elyza’s heart speed up a little bit and she walked down the hallway with a grin of her own, cheeks flushed. The walkers wouldn’t be the death of her, Alicia and her pretty smile would.

 

* * *

 

When Elyza finally closes the door, Alicia lays on her back, looking up at the ceiling. She doesn’t know how she is supposed to be feeling, knowing that the blonde had been jealous. It’s obvious that she cares about the brunette. Alicia is honest to herself and admits that she cares about the brunette too. How could she not care? Elyza protected her through a lot of bad situations, she protected her even before knowing who she was. It only means three things: she is a precious little shit, she needs to be protected too and Alicia would go nuts if something ever happens to her.

 

Alicia smiles to herself, glad that they finally talked about their issues. They really needed to have that conversation. She is still having mixed feelings about the whole situation though: she can’t forget that, somehow, Elyza had sex to get back at her for kissing Jordan. That was simply not a thing to do to your friend. Especially since it was not really just a kiss. They had sex and Alicia couldn’t stop thinking about her _friend_ and _some random girl_ getting it on. The more she thinks about it, the easier it’s for her to get frustrated. She shakes the idea out of her head, thinking that it wasn’t a good thing for her health to torture herself with the images of Elyza and Lindsey.

 

It takes her a long moment before she can close her eyes, even more before she finally starts sleeping. All that she can think about is finding a safer place just like Mark’s house and stop being on the move. She liked to stay on Strand’s ship; though it wasn’t an easy access or way out, they were on the water. Walkers couldn’t swim. The boat’s main problem was the electricity starting to go on and off, letting them know that they would eventually run out of it. Then there was another problem: they had no fuel and they still needed to find food, a thing that couldn’t grow on the boat. Alicia only wishes that they would find a farm where they could make their own food instead of ransacking abandoned houses. She was tired of almost having a heart attack every time they knocked on a door to see a few walkers come out of the place, while they also had to watch their backs. She wasn’t made to live in a world like this.

 

* * *

 

She wakes up early the next morning to the detonation of a gun. She jumps what seems like ten feet from the couch she slept on, about to have a heart failure. Alicia immediately understands that someone in the house had fired a bullet and it meant that they were now in great danger, all of them.

 

As soon as she approaches the door, she hears a grumble and the sound of someone trailing their feet on the floor. It’s a walker. It’s a fucking walker inside of the house and Alicia just got out of bed – well, couch. She was nowhere prepared for this.

 

She takes a deep breath and puts her backpack on rapidly. Armed with her knife, she opens the door and freeze when she sees three walkers making their way to where the bullet was shot. They immediately notice her presence and start shuffling towards her. She has the time to clumsily attack the first one, but the second walker grabs her hand and she believes, for a second, that this meant the end for her, as she struggles to remove her knife from the first walker’s head to get the second.

 

She manages to escape its grip, but falls on her back, the walker going down with her. She gasps in pain, pushing the body on top of her with all her strength. The sees that the last walker is about to kneel to take advantage of her exposed legs. When Alicia is on the verge of abandoning her fight, she hears a loud and angry shout.

 

Elyza.

 

She rushes into the computer room, a hand holding her hunting knife and the other her pistol. The blonde stabs the on top of Alicia and then shoots the walker about to bite her leg. Elyza turns towards the door, facing two more infected coming towards her, distracted by the loud resonating gunshot. She takes them down both, and shove and a kick in their stomach to fall in the hallway. She manages to close the door, while Alicia pushes the walker off her.

 

There are more grumbling noises and the two young women know that there are more walkers getting inside the house. “Everyone, get out by the windows!” The blonde shouts. Alicia turns her head towards the window – what a tiny ass window it is. She unlocks it and successfully opens it. “I’ll go first.” Elyza tells her. Alicia doesn’t bother complaining against that; Elyza was the one with the guns and the skills to get them out of this bad situation.

 

The blonde rushes to get through the window and jumps. It’s only a meter from the ground, but she lets out a huff when her feet touch the ground. There’s walkers around, but probably not as many as inside.

 

Fear tugs at Alicia’s chest when she thinks that her family might still be inside the house with all the walkers trying to eat them. She realises that Chris and Nick might be fine, because Elyza is rescuing her. The brunette hopes that everyone is outside that deathtrap already.

 

The door opens suddenly behind her and she doesn’t hesitate to follow Elyza, jumping through the window too, knowing that the walkers would have gotten her if she didn’t move for two more seconds. She winces in pain when she lands, unstable on her feet, and she scratches one of her knees on the ground. Her friends helps her up. They’re on the left side of the house and they can’t see any walkers from where they are, so they start running towards the driveway.

 

They find Madison and Travis starting their vehicles. Alicia’s eyes lights up when they find her mother’s and she start rushing towards her. Elyza follows, putting her pistol back in its holster.

 

Alicia’s mother yells at them, signaling something by pointing behind her the teenagers. They turn their heads, Elyza ready to fight again, but it’s not walkers coming towards them, it is Chris supporting a bleeding Nick. He has a split lip and his face looks swollen.

 

The blonde comes to help Chris and they put Nick in one car. Chris looks furious and ready to take down every walker inside the house. Something happened, something that Alicia wasn’t aware of. She doubted that it was because of the first gunshot. Whatever that was, it happened before the brunette jumped out of her bed.

 

Nick groans in pain as he sits in the backseat of the sedan. A few walkers that followed Chris and Nick are getting closer and Travis rushes on them with the help of Elyza and Alicia.

 

“Where are Ofelia and Daniel?” Chris looks at Madison. He’s sweating and breathing heavily; it’s clear that he had been running for his live and Nick’s. “Are they still inside?”

 

“I hope not.” The older woman answers, looking at the house with a worried face.

 

Nick wipes his bloodied split lip. “Mom, we gotta go soon! If they don’t come back, we’re gonna get circled by them!” He tells her.

 

“We’re not leaving them in here!”

 

When the others are done with the walkers, Elyza run towards Madison. “Get in the car and hit the horn! If we don’t distract the walkers, they’ll get O. and Daniel!” She stops by the car. “Everyone hop in the cars right now! Just start driving around if they get too close and keep honking, I’ll find you guys!”

 

Madison obeys Elyza’s command without hesitation, while Travis gets in the other car and starts honking too. Chris takes a seat in the passenger’s side of his father’s car.

 

Alicia stares at her blonde friend with a scold. “I’m not letting you distract them alone again!”

 

“They’re starting to come out, just go with your Mom, it’s safer!” Elyza retorts.

 

“I won’t leave you!”

 

Elyza wants to growl in frustration at the brunette’s tenacity, but she refrains herself. She will have to deal with Alicia’s safety and the walkers. “Fine, but you follow me and don’t questions my decisions.” She tells her, starting to run.

 

Alicia follows her, watching the cars leaving the driveway. The two teenagers make their way to the back of the house, the brunette not questioning her friend’s plan. There were a few walkers only in the back, mostly because they came from the neighborhood and had been distracted by the gunshots. Elyza takes them down all by herself as Alicia watches her back.

 

When she’s done, she gives a look at Alicia. “We’re going inside the house.” She tells her, then smirks.

 

They open the houses backdoor and Elyza rushes in head first, stabbing the rotters standing in her path. It’s almost mesmerizing to see her fight, but Alicia can’t let herself distracted by her friend. She needs to be completely alert and find Ofelia and Daniel, who were probably still in the house.

 

Thankfully, most of the walkers were drawn to the horn’s sound and left the house. A few remained inside, trapped by doors and walls, but they were easy to kill, still distracted by the loud sound.

 

Elyza gets to Ofelia and Daniel’s room and find it empty – or she thought it was. “O? Daniel?” She asks, while Alicia watches the door, ready to fight any walker that would come inside the room.

 

They hear a sigh of relief as the Salazar’s come out of their hiding spot. Daniel had been hiding in the closet, while his daughter hid underneath the bed. The Salvadoran man looks at Elyza with a face of pure gratitude.

 

“Thank you Elyza.” He tells her.

 

She points her knife towards him, but it’s not in a menacing way, only to accentuate her words. “Don’t thank me yet, we’re not out of the woods.” He nods and she continues. “Come on, let’s go. I hope for you that you all have great cardio!”

 

They make their way to the backdoor, Elyza leading the group, followed by Alicia and Ofelia, then Daniel to watch their backs. As soon as they’re outside, they take care of a walker and start running in the direction of the sound of the horn.

 

Alicia knows what the blonde wants to do: she wants to outrun the walkers to get to the car, a move that is very risky. They didn’t have any options to go by anyways, because they couldn’t just sit there and wait for the rest of the group to come and get them.

 

“We run in the house’s backyards! If there are fences, we need to jump them.” She indicates after sticking her hunting knife in a female walker’s head. “We need to hurry up.”

 

Daniel grunts because, between them four, he was the least in shape. At least he has some endurance, but Elyza doesn’t want to know when he’ll run out of it.

 

* * *

 

They haven’t crossed a lot of walkers while they ran in the backyards of houses, but they avoided them all. Daniel was soon out of breath, but he kept pushing himself. At some point, they managed to see the horde of walkers following their two cars and it gave them all strength to keep running.

 

When they were close enough, Elyza indicated to the other three to cut between two houses and run directly towards their vehicles, even if they were still moving. They had to get out of the residential quarter.

 

Travis and Madison saw them, then they immediately stopped honking and slowed their car a little. Elyza muffled some swears under her breath while she ran to the farthest car, the one with Travis and Chris. Alicia followed the blonde and almost jumped in the moving vehicle, as a walker was getting closer to her. Travis and Madison accelerated when the four of them got in the car.

 

It is only when everyone is inside the cars that they allow themselves to breathe. Elyza presses a hand on her face, wiping out the sweat on her forehead. She glances at Alicia and smile. “We did it.” She says, her voice hoarse.

 

Alicia doesn’t know what she would have done if they had found the Salazar’s being eaten by the walkers in that room. She pushes this thought out of her head, trying to focus on the positive outcome. No one got injured – okay, maybe Nick, but no one got bitten and that was the principal matter.

 

The brunette returns the smile to Elyza and swallows with difficulty, her throat dry. No wonder the blonde had a hoarse voice. “We did it.” Alicia repeats.

 

Chris turns his head to look at Alicia with serious eyes. “We need to talk.” He tells the brunette. She only frowns in answer and he continues. “It’s about Nick.”

 

“What did he do?” Alicia answers her own question and Chris nods his head when he sees the realisation in his stepsister’s eyes. “Don’t tell me he did that?”

 

“I don’t need to confirm that, because I think you already know the answer.” He waits a few seconds, looking at his father, who simply remains unfazed. Travis is probably very, very mad. Nick better prepare himself for all the reprimands he’ll get. “He found medication in the house. He took half the pill jar and thought it would be a nice idea to gather his own supplies.” I

 

Travis’s knuckles are white from how hard he grips the steering wheel. “He got out of the house without anybody noticing, but he came back in panic. The walkers started getting inside. We woke up because of the gunshot.”

 

Elyza hums, sucking at a candy and her mouth, then answers: “That was me, I saw him coming back from his little solo supply run.”

 

There’s an awkward silence for a moment, Alicia trying to process what really happened, realising that anyone could have died because of her brother’s drug addiction. She thought he was getting better, that he finally came to reason that he couldn’t be an addict in this world, that it would lead to his death or someone else’s.

 

Alicia is curious about something, though. “But why does he have a split lip?”

 

Chris turns his head to look at the road. “I kind of elbowed him. Let’s say it was an accident.”

 

The blonde opens her mouth and say: “Well, he kind of deserved it.”

 

“Kids, Madison and I are going to have a serious discussion with him as soon as we find a house we can sleep in for the night.” He tells this to them with a bit of warning in his tone. “Let us handle this without interfering.”

 

“He’s my brother, I put up with his shit, I get to tell him my way of thinking!” Alicia lets out a huff. She had never been fond of Travis before the outbreak, but after, she kind of got the idea that he was a member of the group and that they needed him to survive too. He usually has genius plans and, so far, no one had been hurt except Jordan – who wasn’t even from their group.

 

“Alicia, we need to make him understand his mistakes. He won’t listen if you’re there yelling at him.” He tries to explain to her. “We will need to have an eye on him permanently, we don’t want anything like this to happen again.”

 

She has to admit that Travis makes a point. She looks at him through the rear-view. “Fine.” Alicia then turns her head towards Elyza, who looks at her with a sympathetic expression. The brunette had warned her before that Nick was a whole lot of trouble because of his drug addiction.

 

* * *

 

As soon as they made a dozen of miles, they stop when they find a lonely house on a road. It’s far enough from a town and there’s no walkers around. There’s no one inside too.

 

No one feels like talking about what happened. Nick is silent, eyes on the ground, not wanting to meet anyone’s gaze. Ofelia and Daniel probably suspected why a horde of walkers came in the house; according to Chris, Nick was still high from the pills he took.

 

There’s three rooms in this house and Alicia desperately need to lay on one. She doesn’t even bother removing her shoes, she just lets her body fall limp on the mattress. Elyza, on the other hand, takes her time to remove her weapons, leaving them on the nightstand, and remove her boots.

 

Alicia turns her head slightly to the side to look at the blonde. “Why do you always rescue everyone?” She asks in a soft voice.

 

Since she met Elyza, the young woman had save her countless time. “I wouldn’t have any friends then.”

 

“Seriously, Elyza?” Alicia says with a bit of annoyance in her tone.

 

“I never really trusted anyone until you.” She tells her, but it’s not enough for the brunette.

 

“Tell me what changed.”

 

Elyza gulps nervously. “When I was alone I… I met an old man that wanted me to help him and share food. I didn’t want to help him because I didn’t know him.” She releases a nervous breath. “I ran away. Two days later, I found him getting devoured by walkers on the side of the road.”

 

“You have regrets about running?” Alicia asks and Elyza nods in agreement.

 

“I keep telling myself that he could’ve made it if accepted to help him.” She bites her lower lip. “I used to want to help everyone. This world has changed me and I didn’t like the person I became when I was alone.”

 

“That’s why you helped me?”

 

“Mostly. You were cute too.” She says, the signature smirk creeping back up her face.

 

Alicia quirks her eyebrows. “Were?”

 

“Well, yeah… you know you should definitely shower more? You stink. Plus, you have all this dirt on your face. So… no, it’s not cute.” She says, then stuffs her face in her pillow.

 

“You’re impossible.”

 

“Yup.”

 

“You saved my ass like four times today.” Alicia informs the blonde. “Plus, you killed like fifteen zombies by yourself. That’s pretty impressive.”

 

“Thanks.”

 

Alicia waits for a few more seconds before speaking. “Are you tired?”

 

Elyza doesn’t answer because she is already sleeping.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> :D
> 
> It's 1:30 a.m. I'm happy with this chapter, but now I'm going to bed. *gives self five*
> 
> Leave a comment here or contact me via my tumblr thesilversouls. I LOVE TALKING. I'm a ball of anxiety sometimes when I read them but I LOVE IT and I'll talk with you for hours if you want me to. 
> 
> Big thanks to all of you amazing readers!


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, it's a very sad chapter. I'm sorry.

Elyza is always tough and all when it comes to facing walkers and everything, because the adrenaline hits and she knows she needs to fight to _survive_. When she allows herself to close her eyes and sleep, when she can feel, for a matter of second, to be safe, it’s a complete other thing. Killing walkers doesn’t make her feel proud of herself, on the contrary. She knows that permanently ending them is for a matter of life or death, because either it’s them or it’s her. But it’s still killing. She acts like she’s though and all, but it actually just hurts her when she tells herself that walkers used to be human. She tries to comfort herself, imagining that they were now in a better place, but it doesn’t make much of a difference, because then she usually starts thinking about her friends and family.

 

Her father was a police officer and always looked very severe in his uniform, but she knew it was just a façade for when he was in duty. Jacob had been a very caring man that always looked after her when she was in high school. Elyza used to play a lot of different sports – the reason why she has amazing cardio – and he never missed one of her games. He taught her how to defend herself in many ways and she hates that she couldn’t say goodbye to him and thank him properly for being such an amazing father.

 

Her mother was one of the best surgeons in Sydney. Elyza and her didn’t always get along, like most of the mothers and daughters, but they always supported each other in everything. It was hard because Gail was often out of the city for business and conferences. Elyza had to get used to it. She was a lot closer to her father than her mother, but she missed them both as much as the other.

 

The blonde can remember clearly when they talked for the last time. It was via a Skype call, because her father missed her and wanted to see her face. She remembers him smiling and talking about when he helped a little boy, that week, to find his mother and he looked so proud of himself. It was his favorite part of the job; saving people. He had such a big heart. Then her mother appeared in the background and noticed that Jacob was talking with her and she got so excited that she spilled her tea everywhere on the ground – they haven’t talked for days, which wasn’t normal for them. They talked for half an hour about things and then Gail received a call to get to the hospital and they told each other goodbye. Jacob looked at her with a smirk and told her: _“You better don’t forget to call your old man!”_ which Elyza responded saying: _“How could I? I’d miss you to bloody much.”_ They smiled at each other before her mother rolled her eyes, saying: _“Okay sweetie, gotta go! You take care of yourself, will you?_ ” Elyza smiled widely and answered that she didn’t have to worry.

 

She hates thinking about her parents because it hurts so much and all she can feel is this sadness. They knew Elyza loved them with all her heart, but she regrets that she didn’t get to say one last goodbye and tell them she was proud that they were such good parents.

 

She hates to think about them because she knows they were the first line of people that got turned into walkers. She’ll never know how the disease started, but she knows too well that they tried to stop it with doctors first, and seeing her mother was one of the best; she would’ve been in the middle of it. Then, when the walking dead started to cause trouble and panic, the law enforcement had to make their presence known. Both Elyza’s parents had to help and she knew they would try their best to save as many people as they could. They did what they had to do and their daughter knows it wasn’t enough for them to survive. Her father wouldn’t run away from a person in need. He would have tried to reason an infected person to stay away from him, but he wouldn’t have wanted to take it down and he would have get himself bitten.

 

Elyza stares at the ceiling, laying on the mattress, tears already flooding her face. Alicia is sleeping at her sides and she hopes that she will not wake her up. She curses herself for starting to think about how bad she misses her parents. It’s been months and she wouldn’t mind dying in the next hour if she got to see their faces for one last time.

 

What would truly bring her peace in this shithole would be hearing her little brother’s voice again. Trevor was born when she was 11 years old. He was unexpected, of course, her parents were very busy in their work life and they didn’t think of having a second child, but he was their little miracle and they couldn’t abandon him. His personality was the opposite of Elyza’s; he was a quiet little boy, very nervous sometimes. He didn’t trust anyone except from his parents and his sister. He was Elyza’s little ray of sunshine, she loved to wake up to him jumping in her bed, telling her to wake up because she would miss her classes. She walked Trevor to preschool every day and he held her hand tightly, not wanting to leave her. When she told him that she was accepted in Berkely, he immediately burst into tears and tried to convince her to stay at home. When she had to tell him goodbye at the airport, it was a very heartbreaking scene.

 

Elyza missed everything about Trevor; his shy smile, his beautiful blue eyes, his clear blonde and curly hair, his tiny soft hands, the proudness in his voice and eyes when he brought back a drawing from school... Trevor was a little boy easy to scare and Elyza wishes that his death was quick, painless and that he didn’t became a walker.  

 

Alicia stirs in her sleep and it makes the blonde stops breathing, fighting the urge to swallow and sniff. She knows her friend is a light sleeper. When she hears her regular breathing, she tries to focus on that. It’s soft and Elyza thinks that she could stay in bed all day hearing this only sound.

 

When she is calm enough, she decides to get out of bed to go to the bathroom. She knows she couldn’t stay longer in bed without raising the brunette’s suspicion. She gets out of under the blanket and makes her way to the other room without making a noise.

 

The night has not quite settled yet, there are some rays of sunlight peeking through the bathroom’s windows. Elyza wipes her tears and give a quick glance at her reflection in the mirror. She’s a mess, her cheeks are puffy and her eyes are red. She takes paper towel to remove the snot blocking her nose. It’s perfectly understandable that she gets emotional thinking of her family, but especially about Trevor; he was her everything and she always took pleasure in reminding him of that.

 

She stays about fifteen minutes in the bathroom, trying to regulate her breathing and push back the painful thoughts of Jacob, Gail and Trevor. She takes long deep breath between soft sobs and she splashes water in her face to lessen the puffy cheeks and red eyes. It works a little, but she stills feels like she could start crying again.

 

She hears a three knocks on the door and she stiffens for a moment. “Elyza, are you in there?” Alicia’s voice comes from the hallway.

 

The blonde gulps nervously. “Yeah, just wait a sec.” She answers, wiping her hands with a towel to dry her hands.

 

When Elyza opens the bathroom’s door, she is met with a sleepy Alicia wearing a new flannel shirt, a size too large. She must have found it in the closet of their room.

 

As soon as Alicia sees the blonde trying to get out of the bathroom, she can feel that something is wrong. Elyza’s face is a little more red than usual. Before the other young woman can make it out of the room, the brunette grabs her wrist softly.

 

She freezes, looking down at Alicia’s hand on her wrist. “What?” She says with a hoarse voice. Elyza knows that this gave her away.

 

“Are you feeling alright?”

 

“…Yes.” She exhales.

 

“Hey, I’m not a fool.” Alicia says, pausing. “I know there’s something, so… if you ever wanna talk about it, you know I’m right here, okay?”

 

Elyza nods and makes her way to the room she and the brunette shares. She gets under the blankets again and throws them over her head. She wants to talk to Alicia about her family, but knows it will surely bring memories – good memories, but it would make her sad. She knows she hadn’t shared a lot about herself and knew her friend would get curious at some point.

 

She hears the footsteps from the hallway to their room and she feels the mattress shift under the weight of Alicia. Elyza removes the blankets from her head and looks at Alicia. “It’s not that I don’t want to talk to you.” She starts, biting her lower lip nervously. “It’s just that it’s very hard to talk about it.”

 

Alicia gives her a soft smile. “I’m not forcing you to share, you know. I just wanna make sure that you know I’m here for you if you want to.” She puts her hand on Elyza’s. “I promise I would never judge.”

 

“You promise?” The blonde asks in a murmur.

 

The brunette nods at her, slipping her hand inside Elyza’s and brushing her thumb on the back of it, trying to comfort her. The blonde forces a smile and averts her gaze.

 

“I miss my family.” She croaks out, on the verge of tears again.

 

Alicia understands the feeling, she really does, even though her situation wasn’t as near as similar to Elyza’s, who doesn’t know if her parents suffered the same fate as most people. Alicia’s father lost his life in a car accident years before the outbreak, but it still devastated her and Nick. The death of his father was one of the many reasons that pushed Nick to use more and more drugs, until he became truly addicted. Alicia was crying herself to sleep every night until it finally became easier to accept the idea that one of her role model died.

 

Though, it’s not the same situation. She can’t compare a car accident to the end of the human world. Elyza is alone with the idea that her family members are now undead and there’s nothing to do about it, because she would have to cross the ocean to get to Australia.

 

Elyza tries to regulate her breathing again, but it’s unsuccessful. She lets out a sob and Alicia’s eyes are on her, compassionate, she continues speaking. “I have… I _had_ a brother.” She pauses. “His name was Trevor and he was the sweetest little man on Earth.”

 

“How old was he?”

 

“Six… he was only six.” She says with a strangled voice. “He was always waking me up in the morning when I had school.” Alicia nods and she feels Elyza’s hand tightening hers. “He was very shy, but he had a big heart and loved to draw.” She bites her lower lip again, sucking on it.

 

Alicia’s eyes are glued to the blonde’s face, watching her movements and expressions. She understands now her reaction towards the walker kid she killed about a week ago, just before they were in the accident with the members of Mark’s group. “Did he look like you?”

 

“Yeah, if we had been the same age, people would have wondered if we were twins.” She says, letting out a wet chuckle. “He was a very brilliant kid. He would have turned seven in less than two weeks.”

 

“What was your favorite thing to do with him?”

 

“We loved to play chess. Our dad taught us.” Elyza, though the tears are flooding her cheeks, somehow finds very easy to talk to the brunette.

 

“What about him? If I remember correctly, you told me he was a police officer and he taught you how to use a gun.” Alicia gives her an encouraging smile.

 

“Correct. He forced me to know how to defend myself, just in case you know. It serves me well today.” She releases a soft sigh, wiping the tears on her cheeks with her available hand. “He was very protective, but it was what made him a great dad and police officer. I played a lot of sports and, even if he was working a lot, he never missed one.” Elyza talks with a lot of respect of her father. “Mom was a surgeon and she worked even more. I got along better with my Dad than with her, while Trevor listened more Mom.”

 

“I got along better with my Dad too.”

 

Elyza turns her head to look at the brunette. “You miss him a lot?”

 

“Every day, but I’m glad he didn’t see the world fall apart.”

 

* * *

 

They kept talking for a while, sharing memories about their families. Elyza stopped crying when Alicia told her about that time her father, Nick and her went for a two-day fishing trip; she really didn’t want to go, fishing wasn’t her thing at all. She was probably seven years-old at the time, Nick must’ve been nine. It was a few years before Stephen died from the car accident. Madison had been caught up at work and couldn’t go on the trip with them, so Alicia was stuck with only her father and her brother. They teased her all the time because she didn’t wanted to pick up the fish she caught, claiming that it was disgusting. The funniest part of the trip had been when Nick said that he was perfectly capable of removing the hook from the fish’s mouth without whining, but the said fish, when finally free, slipped from his hands and Nick panicked. He ended up falling in the water. Alicia and her dad laughed for what seemed like thirty minutes. Her brother didn’t found this amusing and he got mad. Now, a few years later, Alicia still laughs about it and Nick had finally admitted that it was somehow funny.

 

Alicia doesn’t know when they got closer; Elyza got on her side and they were facing each other, faces at only few inches apart. It doesn’t make the brunette uncomfortable, on the contrary. She feels safe.

 

Elyza, on the other hand, is trying to maintain the rhythm of her heartbeat, which is harder to do when there’s beautiful young woman’s eyes looking into her soul. At least her breathing is regular and she hopes that Alicia doesn’t notice how it affects her to be so close to each other.

 

She can say that she didn’t expected Alicia to change the subject with a personal question. “Did your parents know that you were… you know –”

 

Elyza interrupts her, already knowing the end of her phrase. “–… Gay?”

 

“Yeah, did they know?”

 

“I think they suspected it.” Her parents always knew she was very close to Fiona. She thinks that they suspected it because they never really asked if she was seeing a boy or a girl, they always used general terms.

 

“You never came out to them?”

 

Elyza rolls her eyes. “No, I never had the time for that. I always have been very confused about my sexuality, actually. I thought that I liked boys. I did, but… I couldn’t see myself making out with one.” She says, smiling and biting her lower lip at the same time.

 

Alicia thinks this might be the cutest thing she ever witnessed Elyza doing since they met. “Did you ever have a secret girlfriend?”

 

“No, girlfriends weren’t very my thing.” Answers, winking at the brunette, who only rolls her eye in annoyance. “I think it would’ve been unfair for the other girl if she knew I was just with her to forget that I loved my best friend.”

 

A strand of hair falls on Elyza’s face and Alicia is quick to tuck it back behind the blonde’s ear, her hand lingering a few more seconds there before moving. She hears the hitch of a breath, but she’s not sure if it’s her or her friend. She can feel herself blush, because she knows it was a very intimate touch, but she couldn’t help herself.

 

Alicia realises that she doesn’t mind being this close to Elyza. More, she realises that she actually _wants_ to be this close with her. She clenches her jaw, eyes darting for a second on the mole above the blonde’s upper lip. She knows that she brought the subject – Elyza’s gayness – because of this reason.

 

They don’t talk for another minute, just looking at each other. The blonde is the first one to break the silence. “Thank you for listening to me.” Her tongue pokes out to wet her lips and the movement drives Alicia nuts. “I didn’t realise how much all of this weighted on my shoulders.”

 

“It’s nothing, really.” She tells her, the corners of her mouth twitching into a small genuine smile.

 

It’s Elyza’s turn to lower her eyes, but this time they don’t move up, they stick to Alicia’s lips and the brunettes feels her heart stop right there. She holds her breath and her jaw moves from a side to the other unconsciously, rubbing her teeth together.

 

“It’s not _just_ nothing.” Elyza counters, lowering her voice.

 

Something about her words makes Alicia think that this might not be about the conversation they just had about Elyza’s family members and how much she missed them. No, this was about that thing between them, whatever that is. The brunette’s lips tremble, much more in anticipation than fear, and Elyza grabs her hand, sliding hers inside. Alicia’s mind goes blank and she thinks that she’s possibly having a heart attack too.

 

Alicia moves her head closer to rest her forehead against the blonde’s, closing her eyes. She feels her thumb brushing against her skin and immediately wants more of her. Elyza is remaining immobile, not wanting to waste this intimate moment. Her only desire is that Alicia closes the gap between their lips and kiss her – that is really the one and only thing she craves the most.

 

It takes a moment before the brunette leans in to press her lips against Elyza’s, tilting her head to the side for a better angle. It’s a chaste and delicate kiss and Alicia can feel her heart melting in her chest, because she can feel the blonde’s teeth, an indication that she is _smiling_.

 

Elyza feels goosebumps from her head to toes, realising that it was _Alicia_ that initiated the kiss and not her. _Alicia_ that gently presses her forehead against her. _Alicia_ whose lips were soft like cashmere and _Alicia_ that leaned for a second kiss, this time more confident.

 

The blonde frees Alicia’s hand and moves hers to cup her face, thumbs caressing those sweet and perfect cheekbones. Elyza deepens the kiss and their noses bumps as she changes the angle.

 

They don’t know for how long they kiss, but Alicia needs to come up for her because her chest feels like it’s about to combust. Her breath is fast and she feels like she just had ran fifty miles, it’s a crazy feeling.

 

Alicia plunges her eyes in Elyza’s, who looks at her with a certain form of adoration. “You kissed me.” The blonde breathes out, a smirk on her lips. “Twice.”

 

She bites the insides of her cheeks when the brunette nods in agreement.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> THEY KISSED!
> 
> Also, the name of Elyza's brother is Trever in honor of The Trevor Project, that provides help for LGBTQ teenagers in need. The project provides crisis intervention and suicide prevention: www(.)thetrevorproject(.)org
> 
> Tell me your opinion on the chapter :)


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I need to put this song in your head because I've had it for like four hours and it really distracted me from writing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQ31jQjNpQc
> 
> I'm a horrible person. I know.

A few moments, that was all it took for both of them to forget that they live in a very dangerous world, where a simple noise or movement could lead you to your deathbed. Her heart flutters as she remembers that Elyza was patiently waiting. She wanted to make sure that Alicia wanted this enough to initiate the first move. When their lips finally touched, there was no more walkers nor deaths nor survival needs in their thoughts. There’s only them and that’s the one thing that matters, because they finally kissed each other. It’s something new and there’s this special inexplicable thing between them, like a pull, a need to protect the other.

 

It doesn’t take long before the soft and delicate kisses evolve and turn into more vivid kisses. Elyza is not one to rush things usually, but Alicia is making it so damn hard with the way she wraps her arms around her neck. The soft sighs she releases when their lips pull apart for only a second is music to her ears. She buries her hands in Elyza’s hair, fingernails gently scraping her scalp, earning a gentle nip on her lower lip from the blonde.

 

They start kissing each other laying on their sides, but it soon becomes more complicated to kiss in this position and Alicia, rolls on her back, dragging the other young woman on top of her. Elyza doesn’t complain about this at all, straddling one the brunette’s thigh with a smile on her lips. She brings her body closer to Alicia’s again, pressing their chests together, as her mouth finds her way back to the brunette’s. Their teeth clash together and they giggle together for a few seconds.

 

Alicia feels goosebumps on her arms and on the back of her neck. It’s a very pleasant feeling, though it feels a little bit weird because, if it wasn’t from kissing the hot Australian woman on top of her, she would have wondered if she had a fever; her skin burns and she wants to remove her clothes, but pushes the idea out of her head because she doesn’t want this, their moment, to go this far. She wasn’t ready to go there yet.

 

Elyza pulls back a second, looking in the brunette’s beautiful green eyes. Her breath is short, but she stills manages to let out a phrase. “Maybe we should get some sleep.” Its rational thinking, she doesn’t want Alicia to be exhausted tomorrow or to feel pushed to do anything. Elyza doesn’t want to directly start _undressing_ her friend, because they literally just started _kissing_ each other. She prefers taking her time, even though she didn’t know how much time they have on their hands – anything could happen, in this world.

 

Biting her lips, Alicia looks back at her with blown pupils. “I don’t want to.” She whispers, nails gently clamping on the blonde’s shoulder.

 

Elyza looks down at the younger woman’s swollen lips with a smirk. “Are you going to regret this? I mean, not _not_ stopping, but… this?” There’s a flash of insecurity in her eyes, a thing that Alicia understands very well.

 

She puts a hand behind Elyza’s head, bringing her down slowly. Instead of pressing her lips against hers again, Alicia lowers her face to the blonde’s jawline, pressing kisses there, then moves to her neck. She presses hot open-mouthed kisses on her burning skin. The brunette hears a soft moan in return and it’s definitely not a complaint, but more like an encouragement.

 

Elyza supports her weight to avoid crushing her friend’s body under hears. She closes her eyes, appreciating the more intimate kiss. She feels the shift in the mood as Alicia starts sucking gently the skin on her neck, the one right on her pulse point.

 

Not wanting any suspicious marks on her neck for everyone to see, Elyza pulls back, pressing her mouth to the brunette’s again. Her tongue darts out to lick at her lower lip, asking Alicia for entrance, which is rapidly granted.

 

Her tongue finds Alicia’s a second later, as she finally put a little more weight on the other young woman, supporting herself only with one hand; Elyza’s other finds its way to the brunette’s hip, gripping it firmly.

 

Alicia pulls back and leans her head on the pillow. It doesn’t take long before the blonde’s lips are on her neck, pressing softly her mouth against the skin. The neck always had been her weakness. She closes her eyes, appreciating the way Elyza is kissing up and down, then up again to take her earlobe into her mouth, nipping and suckling gently on it. It sends a shiver down her spine and Alicia releases a soft sigh of pleasure.

 

It really feels good to be intimate, especially since she had been very stressed out in the last few weeks. It feels surprisingly right that it’s with Elyza, that it’s with a woman and not a man, than she can finally relax. Alicia had never really thought she was interested in girls before; being only with guys, it was a normal thing, it wasn’t complicated. She had lesbian friends in high school and she never thought about it; she believed that if everyone was happy, then everything was alright. People had the right to love and be loved, despite their partner’s gender.

 

The blonde lowers the hand previously gripping her hip, pressing the side of one of Alicia’s thighs. All those touches, all this attention, it leaves Alicia panting and wanting for more. Her hips jerk up involuntarily against Elyza and her chin trembles both in excitement and anticipation. She desperately wants the blonde to touch her, even if it’s against her own judgment – she remembers wanting _this_ to go slow, which is absolutely not what they’re doing.

 

Elyza’s heart is pounding in her chest and she swears she can feel it resonate through her ears. She gives up on trying to support her body and slips on of her thighs between Alicia’s legs, feeling the heat irradiating of their bodies. Elyza tries to remain confident, even if she is afraid of speaking; what if she speaks and it breaks their moment?

 

Alicia hums, cupping Elyza’s face with her hands, looking at her blue eyes intensely, her thumb caressing the corner of her mouth. A smile appears on her lips as she reach again to feel Elyza’s lips against her own. She feels the blonde’s hands slowly moving from her hips and slipping underneath her plaid shirt, caressing gently her skin.

 

She puts her hand on Elyza’s shoulder, pushing her back a little. She looks at Alicia with a questioning frown and the brunette lowers her eyes. “What do you think you’re doing?” She asks teasingly.

 

The Australian woman removes her hands underneath Alicia’s shirt with what she could guess was her guilty face, cheeks flushed. “Uh, I…” She takes a deep breath, adverting her gaze. “I’m sorry, things got out of hands.”

 

“I’d say they got into hands.” Alicia retorts with a smirk.

 

Elyza looks back at her and crack a smile. “This was going a little too fast, right?”

 

“Just a little.” She says, sliding her hands into the blonde’s. “This is new to me and… I just want to take things slow, okay? I mean, if you want.”

 

“Of course, I want us to take things slow.”

 

“No, I didn’t mean that, I mean…” She points Elyza and then herself. “… _this_.”

 

She quirks her eyebrows at Alicia. “Do you want _this_?” She nods her head rapidly. “Then, I want this–”

 

Elyza stops talking the moment she hears footsteps in the hallway, her heart jumping in her chest. She instinctively roll on the side, getting off the bed. Alicia looks as panicked as she is, replacing her plaid shirt correctly.

  
Someone knocks at the door and opens it. Madison enters the room without permission granted and Alicia can’t help but think about her mother’s reaction if Elyza and her didn’t hear the footsteps coming towards their room. She knows that, as a guidance counselor, Madison had a great understanding of things and an open mind, but this didn’t mean that she would necessarily agree for Alicia to have _a thing_ with another girl.

 

“Hey girls, up already?” She asks them, a smile on her face.

 

They try to remain as normal as possible. “Yeah, we really needed some rest.” Elyza tells Madison, smiling back at her. “Are we leaving soon?”

 

“Yeah, Travis and I have been looking on maps and he thinks there might be a farm not too far from here. He wants to check it out.” She answers. Looking at Alicia, she frowns. “You alright, baby?”

 

She swallows back her nervousness and smiles at her mother. “I just woke up.” She rubs her eyes with her hands for a second to prover her point. “Did you talk to Nick?”

 

“Not yet, I was waiting for this junk to get out of his system.” Alicia pinches her lips at her mother’s answer. “We’re going to talk to him on the way there.”

 

“I’ll ride with Daniel and O.” Elyza says while putting back her boots.

 

* * *

 

Alicia would have preferred to be anywhere but in the car with her mother, brother and stepfather. She wanted to ride with Elyza and the Salazar, but Nick doesn’t deserve her trust after what he did the previous day. Her mother and Travis had wished to talk to him alone first, but there was a change of plans and they wanted to hit the road. They would probably need to find gas or a new car on their way.

 

She quietly sits in the back seat with Nick, looking in the rear view mirror. Madison looks both disappointed and sad about his son. “We thought all of this was behind you.” She starts, turning her head to look in his eyes. “You specifically told me that you would get better.”

 

He lowers his gaze and his shoulder sags. “Mom, I’ve been better, you have to believe me.”

 

Alicia rolls her eyes because of course it was a thing he always said when he did something bad and regretted it. Only, this time, he fucked up really bad and it could’ve cost someone’s life. “How can you expect me to believe you when it’s always the same thing?” Madison retorts with a harsh voice.

 

He looks at Alicia, trying to have his sister’s support. “Come on Lysha, tell her I’ve been better.”

 

“I can’t say that Nick.” The brunette answers. “Even when we were still on the boat, you tried to steal Elyza’s tylenos.”

 

“He did?” Travis wonders, gripping his hands on the steering wheel. He looks through the rear view mirror to see Alicia’s nod of agreement. He looks very angry, but he stays quiet. Madison is his mother and has to put him back on track – he’ll help her, but he isn’t Nick’s father and it’s not his place to punish him. Alicia likes this about Travis.

 

“I had a weak moment, okay?” He counters, crossing his arms on his chest. “One moment and it’s all it takes for you to stop trusting me?”

 

Madison snorts and points at him. “One weak moment, that’s your best excuse?” She says, raising her voice. “You take this junk and get out of the house, alone, trying to find more only to get high.” She pauses, shaking her head in disappointment. “And you even bring walkers to our doors? You have a serious problem, Nick.”

 

“I wasn’t alone, Chris was there too.”

 

Alicia growls in frustration. “Yes, because he knew you were high and followed you. He alerted Elyza and saved all of us.” She turns her head. “Everywhere you go, you bring trouble with you.”

 

“I want to get better, I swear!” He continues, looking at his mother and his sister.

 

“You said that three times and went to rehab. Baby, I don’t think you truly want to get better.” The mother explains. “We won’t make it far if you don’t make serious efforts. I know you’re better than this.”

 

He nods. “Okay Mom, I’ll make serious efforts.”

 

To Alicia, it sounds very fake. She knows her brother more than anyone else and she already knows that, at the moment where they will not watch him, he would repeat the same mistake over again, but this time with worse consequences. She is tired of always having to take care of Nick; he is older than her, considered an adult, but he acts just like a teenager and it gets on her nerves.

 

Madison seems to but his promise, but no one can blame her. She’s a mother that wants to believe in his son. “Good. You can understand why we’ll need to have an eye on you?”

 

He looks about to argue against this, but he gives her a smile. “Yeah, but don’t push it too far.”

 

“That’s going to be up to your behaviour.” She tells him. “From now on, you will always need to be with an adult. It’s not up to negotiation.”

 

Alicia wonders how long Nick will hold before fucking things up again.

 

* * *

 

After their conversation, they stay quiet until noon, when Alicia tells Travis to stop. She thought it was her imagination playing her tricks, but it turned out that she really saw a farm in the middle of a field. Everyone let out a sigh of relief when they took the long road leading to the property. It seemed very quiet and Alicia would have loved to grow up on a place like this one.

 

At the moment she puts her feet on the gravel, Elyza is at her side, her hunting knife in head. She looks at Alicia with a smile and asks subtly: “So, how did it go?”

 

“Fine… I think.” She answers. Everyone is out of their car, looking around to see if there’s walkers close. Alicia bites her bottom and Elyza’s eyes follow the movement. “How was your car ride?”

 

“Mostly Chris complaining about my lack of singing skills.” She answers, letting out a chuckle. “I don’t know why, I have a lovely voice.”

 

Alicia’s stepbrother gets closer and stares at the blonde, a serious expression on his face. “It’s not about your singing skills, Elyza.” He growls in frustration and looks at the brunette. “She spent the entire car ride singing the Riddle.”

 

“So what?” The Australian teenager retorts.

 

“Do you know how annoying this song is?” He asks, gesticulating. Elyza only shrugs for her answer and Chris continues. “It’s been stuck in my head since the first time you started murmuring the lyrics.” Alicia only thinks it’s funny to see Chris and Elyza bickering.

 

Travis eventually comes to interrupt them. “Guys, we’re going inside the house.” He says. “Get ready.”

 

“I’m always ready.” Elyza declares, making Chris roll his eyes.

 

The groups walks up to the porch and Travis puts his hand on the door knob. It resists, indicating it’s locked. He lets out a groan of frustration. Of course it had to be locked. He looks down at the carpet with ‘ _Welcome!_ ’ written on it and decides to look under it. This must be their lucky day, because the tanned man finds the spare key.

 

After unlocking the door, he proceeds to go through with their usual routine; he knocks in the glass to make a sound, then they get away from the entrance and wait for the possible walkers inside to come out. This way, they don’t have any surprises and they are prepared to fight them. It’s a good method, because they come on their own to them and the group doesn’t have to drag the body outside and deal with the awful smell of flesh in decomposition.

 

It doesn’t take long before the walkers come out of the house. Daniel and Travis take care of them without almost any difficulty. Another walker comes from behind them, probably because it followed their vehicles to the farm. Elyza ends it permanently and lets the body fall on the ground, wiping her hunting knife on its clothing.

 

Travis looks at the walker he killed with curiosity. “What?” Madison asks, looking at her fiancé.

 

He hums, trying to decifer something. “I don’t know, something’s up with this one… he looks different.”

 

Elyza walks up to see the matter. Her face is torn in confusion as she squats. She grimaces at the smell of the rotting body. “Oh, you smell disgusting.” She puts a hand over her nose and points at the walker’s face. “This one has different eyes.”

 

“It looks like they’re bleeding, or… something. I don’t know.” Travis adds.

 

“They’re dead, that’s what really matters here.” Chris tells everyone.

 

The blonde frowns in confusion. “Wait.” She looks at the body from head to toes and turns it to see its back, repeating the motion. “I know what’s up: it doesn’t have any bites.”

 

It’s a statement that is very surprising and intriguing at the same time. They stay silent for a few more seconds before Alicia decides to speak up. “Do you think it’s possible to turn without being bitten?” She asks, looking at Elyza. “That maybe we’re all infected by a virus and it’s just waiting for our death to fully develop?”

 

Nick lets out a cold chuckle. “That’s some fucked up shit.”

 

“No, it’s not actually.” Elyza says, giving Nick a glare. “We can already agree that this is some sort of virus that affects our brains and bodies. It’s a possibility that the virus accelerates with the bite.”

 

“The first person probably never got bitten.” Ofelia interrupts. “Or it has, but from an infected animal, like a lab rat.”

 

Travis shakes his head. “Well, what about this walker?” He asks Elyza.

 

“That, I don’t know.”

 

Madison puts a hand on his fiancé’s shoulder. “Maybe he died from something… a heart attack, perhaps.” She waits, trying to figure out another possibility. “We shouldn’t overthink this.”

 

“Right. We go and clear the rooms, we eat and then we’ll give a look to the barn, see if there’s something interesting in it.” Travis looks at the other members of the group with a smile. “Then, we’ll think of a way to make this place safer. Everyone ready?”

 

They all nod in unison, raising their knives and weapons in the air.

 

* * *

 

While they clear up a place, which was just making sure that there wasn’t any walkers left around, they usually paired up. The Salazar were always together. Chris and Nick were always with Madison or Travis, while Alicia was always with Elyza. The group was very efficient.

 

The farm house is large. It’s two stories high and there’s a lot of rooms too. They couldn’t walk in there thinking it was safe until they cleared all the room. It was possible that a walker was trapped in a room and couldn’t get out. Every closed door represented danger, which was the reason why they never explored the rooms alone. They needed to have the others back just in case something goes wrong.

 

It smells awful inside and they hope that it’s only because of the two walkers they killed. Sometimes, when they are ransacking houses, they end up on dead animals and it smells so bad. It has been a little while since the outbreak and walkers showed to Alicia’s group that they were willing to kill anything with blood and guts. That’s why they hope it’s not something other than the walkers.

 

Alicia walks up in a room carefully, holding her knife tightly, listening if there was any groaning sounds. There isn’t and she is grateful for this. She walks up to the window and opens it; it would do well to the house to remove the smell of decomposing flesh in the air.

 

She hears Elyza entering after her and getting closer. Alicia dreamed all the car ride about having a moment alone with the blonde. She would have preferred to ride with her, if it wasn’t from the conversation her, her mother and Travis needed to have with Nick. The brunette smiles when she feels Elyza’s hands gently spinning her around.

 

Green eyes meets blue eyes again. Elyza smiles before leaning in, capturing her lips in a gentle kiss, pressing her body against the brunette’s. Alicia returns the kiss eagerly, before pulling apart and taking a deep breath. “As much as I would love to continue this, the others will be waiting for us downstairs.” She explains, slipping her hands into Elyza’s.

 

“I wanted to make sure you still wanted this.” She says, pressing a kiss to the corner of Alicia’s smiling lips.

 

“Don’t worry, Lyza.” She tells her, sealing the discussion with a tender kiss. “Come on, let’s go make this place safe.”

 


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi guys! 13 chapters, over 50k, all of this in 16 days... that's a record for me.
> 
> I want to thank everyone personally to read and take time to comment on the story, it really makes me happy. If you need to point out something, you can leave a comment here or on my Tumblr (thesilversouls). 
> 
> A special thank you for Ash_From_Aus. She started to beta the first chapters and does a really great job! 
> 
> Also, I would like to remind you of something. In the Fear the Walking Dead and the Walking Dead universe, there's a lot of character dying. In my story, Jordan died pretty quickly, but he was the only character to die so far. I want to reassure that Elyza and Alicia will stay alive, because I write this story mostly to cope with Lexa's death on The 100. There will be major and minor character deaths and it will not be sunshine and rainbows all the time, just be aware of that.

Elyza and Alicia make their way downstairs, smiles on their lips, joining the others that gathered in the living room. The oldest of the group are sitting on the couches while Nick, Chris and Ofelia are on the floor. Each of them have food in their hands, which Alicia believes comes from the farm house’s kitchen. They’re all smiling and relieved that they found a place where they can finally settle.

 

Alicia nods to the blonde to follow her in the kitchen, as she makes her way to this room. It doesn’t take long before Elyza joins her. There’s canned food on the counter along with boxes of crackers, cereals and granola bars. The brunette stomach makes itself known as she walked to pick up a small box of cereals. It’s not her favorite brand, but she doesn’t want to eat canned legumes.

 

Elyza approaches slowly, eyes lowering to meet Alicia’s lips, knowing that all she wants is to kiss her again. They know that anybody could walk on them, since there weren’t any doors leading to the kitchen. Alicia bites her bottom lip and shakes her head. “Do you mind if… we keep this between us? For now?” She exhales slowly. She doesn’t know why, but she feels nervous at the idea of her family members discovering their relationship. Whatever kind of relationship it is. Alicia doesn’t feel the need to put a label on it, she only knows she wants to be with the blonde.

 

Considering she never came out to anyone before, the only exception being Alicia, Elyza feels okay with this request. She nods and picks a can up, opening it with the can-opener. She searches in a drawer and finds a spoon. “I don’t mind at all.” She looks down at her soup. “I don’t want anything to be complicated, really.”

 

This world was already complicated enough, according to both of them. Alicia nods in agreement, glad that she preferred to keep it between them. She knows there will be a time where the other members of the group will inevitably start to wonder about the nature of their relationship, but she hopes that, by then, she’ll be ready to open up to them.

 

They move to the living room again, bringing their food with them. The others are almost done eating, but they don’t feel like moving yet. They’re discussing about what they would need to do before the darkness comes.

 

“I want to see what there is in that barn first.” Travis says, looking through the window. “There could be a car in there or farm equipment.”

 

“It could be anything, really.” Ofelia adds. “There will probably be tools in there.”

 

“I hope so.” Her father adds. “Let’s speak about security. This is a good location, but we need to secure it from walkers.”

 

“Anything in mind, Daniel?” Madison asks, looking at him.

 

He nods, a serious look on his face. “We crossed a few cars on our way and it’s not too far from here. We could use those to make a barrier around the house.”

 

“If we can’t start them, we can’t push them. If they work, it could be a good option, but…” Travis takes a short pause. “If survivors sees the barrier, they’ll know we’ll be in here.”

 

“It’s a risk I’m willing to take.” Daniel continues. Only a few weeks ago, the Salvadoran man was totally against the idea of welcoming new people in their group. Of course, this isn’t about accepting new members, but more about helping people in need.

 

Alicia’s stepfather nods. “Okay. Any other ideas, anyone?”

 

“I think we should wait and see what’s in the barn first.” Elyza says. “I think we’re going to be right now; we’re in the middle of nowhere and we haven’t crossed a lot of walkers on our way here. We’ll just need to keep quiet.”

 

“There’s also a barbed wire fence on both sides of the land.” Alicia adds.

 

“Fine, the barn first.”

 

* * *

 

Madison, Nick, Ofelia and Chris agrees to stay inside the farm house, searching it for anything interesting that could give them ideas to make the place safer from walkers. The rest of the group, including Alicia and Elyza, make their way outside and walks to the barn. Travis knocks on the wooden door and they wait, looking around.

 

When they don’t hear anything for a few minutes, Travis decides that they have waited long enough and opens the door. It’s quite dark inside, but the cracks of the wooden planks makes it easier to see. The small group walks inside, ready for any surprise.

 

“I wished there was chickens.” Elyza says, pouting. She earns a smack from Alicia and let out a chuckle. “What? Don’t tell me you’re not dreaming of eating eggs every morning, I won’t believe you.”

 

Alicia does miss eating eggs in the morning, but she rolls her eyes at the blonde and doesn’t bother answering her.

 

“There’s tools here.” Daniel says, pointing out a large toolbox in a corner of the barn.

 

“Also a ton of wood planks.” Travis continues, walking towards something covered by a slipcover. “Let’s see what’s under this.” As soon as he remove it, dust rises in the air, making him cough.

 

“All they are is dust in the wiiiind.” Elyza mumbles under her breath, referring to the popular old song Dust in the Wind by Kansas. They wait for the dust to settle and the blonde explains herself. “It’s a motorcycle!”

 

“As nice as it sounds like, it’s pretty useless to us.” Travis tells her, shaking his head.

 

“Not to me.”

 

Alicia looks at the blonde, widening her eyes. “You know how to ride one?”

 

Elyza restrains herself, trying not to make an inappropriate comment in front of Alicia’s stepfather. She smiles widely, crossing her arms on her chest. “What, do you think the leather jacket was only for the style?” She teases the brunette, quirking her eyebrows. Alicia huffs and Elyza continues: “I love motorcycles, my father was always letting me drive his.” She sounds very proud about it.

 

They hear a grunting sound and Alicia stiffens. “Looks like we have a walker coming our way.” Travis states. The said walker must have heard their voices and started coming their way. He was trying to get inside the barn, but he was only hitting its wooden walls, nothing else. The tanned man sighs and tightens his grip on his knife. “I’ll take care of it.” He makes his way outside the barn and Daniel follows him, just in case anything goes wrong.

 

“Look, there’s a ladder right there.” Elyza points her fingers in the direction. Alicia looks up and sees that it’s leading on another floor. It’s open, so if there was any walker in there, it would have walked towards them and fell on the ground.

 

The blonde makes her way towards the ladder and Alicia follows her. “We should wait for Travis and Daniel to come back.” She says, trying to be reasonable.

 

“You know there’s nothing dead or alive up there.” She smirks. “Follow me.”

 

It sounds more like a question and Alicia sighs in annoyance. She doesn’t want to go up there without knowing if it’s dangerous or not, but she prefers to follow Elyza just in case something happens. She looks at the blonde and scowl. “Fine, I’ll come, but if you get us killed because of your stupid idea, I’ll kill you again.”

 

“I love it when you threaten me like that.” The blonde winks. “Ladies first?”

 

“No, you just want an excuse to look at my ass.”

 

“Yeah, so?”

 

Alicia only wants to kiss off that stupid smirk of Elyza’s face. She cracks a smile and points the ladder. “You go first.”

 

“Alright, alright.” The blonde pouts, starting to go up the ladder. “You’re no fun.”

 

“You clearly appreciate me this way, Elyza.” Alicia retorts.

 

They make their way to the other floor, Travis and Daniel entering the barn again after taking care of the walker. Alicia’s stepfather scowls at them. “You should have waited for us to be back before going up there.” He looks frustrated.

 

Alicia simply shrugs and points Elyza. “She wasn’t taking no for an answer.

 

“And we’re fine, Travis.” The blonde points out, a smile on her lips. “There’s nothing much up here, mostly just haystacks. I’d say they’re pretty harmless.” The brunette rolls her eyes at Elyza’s words.

 

* * *

 

It starts raining in the middle of the afternoon and, because of this, they can’t really work outside to secure the farm house. They decide to take rest of the day to relax, hanging around in the house or continuing to search for something interesting to do. Most of them were still exhausted from the previous day, when they had to run away from the walkers. Alicia’s muscles were sore and just walking had become painful. It wouldn’t last long, though.

 

The adults are playing card games in the living room, talking quietly. Nick is sleeping on one of the couches and the rest of the group is gathered in the room Chris decided to sleep in. It’s small, but there’s a bed that the four of them can sit on.

 

“I found something very interesting.” Chris tells the three women sitting on the bed, a smile on his lips.

  
“What?” Ofelia wonders.

 

Elyza is occupying herself, cleaning one of her pistols carefully. Chris had insisted to watch her do it, because guns somehow fascinated him and he wanted to know how to handle one properly. Travis didn’t want his son to carry a weapon, but Chris wasn’t one to follow his orders. Alicia remembers when his father and her mother first got together; both she and Travis’s son hated each other. She wasn’t ready for Madison to find happiness with another man and Chris wasn’t either, mostly because his father left his mother to be with Alicia’s mother.

 

He jumps off the bed and crouches, taking something under it. He holds a half full bottle of alcohol with a victorious smile. “I found this.”

 

Elyza and Alicia looks up to the younger man. “Is that Bourbon?” The blonde asks, a smile growing on her face when Chris nods in approval. “Where did you find this?”

 

“In the living room’s TV stand.” He answers, removing the cap and taking a large swig.

 

Ofelia looks at the younger man and pinches her lips together. “Don’t you think it’s a little dangerous to drink right now?”

 

He rolls his eyes at her. “Come on, O. We’re still teenagers.”

 

She lets out a chuckle. “You guys are still teenagers, I’m 25.”

 

Elyza smiles and takes the bottle of Jim Beam and shakes her head. “Ah! It’s weird, because you really don’t look your age.” She smiles at Ofelia. “I always forget that… but this doesn’t mean that you can’t drink a little too.”

 

“Thanks, but what if we need rush out of the house because there are walkers everywhere?”

 

“It won’t happen, Travis is watching Nick.” Alicia looks at her stepbrother with a scowl, but she keeps quiet as he continues talking to the Salvadoran woman. “If you don’t want to drink, it’s more alcohol for us.”

 

The blonde snorts a laugh. “Chris, that’s a lame attempt to convince a girl from drinking.”

 

“Because you think that you have a better way?” He counters, challenging her.

 

Elyza takes a swig of the Bourbon and winces at the aftertaste. “Yeah, you actually offer her a drink.” She passes he bottle to Alicia, a smirk on her lips. The brunette smiles at her and takes a drink, looking at Elyza dead in the eyes.

 

“What if she refuses the drink?” Chris asks.

 

Alicia passes the bottle to Ofelia, looking at his stepbrother. “Then you stop, because either the girl is not interested in you or she doesn’t want to drink.” She pauses for a few seconds. “Or maybe it’s both.”

 

* * *

 

They finished the bottle of Jim Beam in a record time as they continued talking. The adults were still playing cards games in the living room, on the first floor. All the youngest members of the group were starting to feel tipsy when Ofelia called it a night and left. It didn’t take long before Chris fell asleep after that.

 

When Chris is snoring, the two girls get up, looking at each other. It was time for them to make their way back to their room and Alicia couldn’t wait to finally be alone with her.

 

When they’re finally in the room, Elyza closes the door then moves to wraps her arms around Alicia. “I couldn’t wait for this moment.” The brunette doesn’t speak, simply pressing her lips against the blonde’s. She tastes of Bourbon and Alicia thinks it’s delicious.

 

Elyza hums into the kiss and takes a few steps forward, pushing Alicia to back up until the back of her legs hits the mattress. She almost falls on it, but she latches her arms around Elyza’s neck to regain her stability. “Are you drunk?” The blonde giggles.

 

“Slightly tipsy.” Alicia lets out, looking into Elyza’s blue eyes. The room is plunged in darkness but she can still define the contours of the blonde’s eyes and catch the spark in her eyes.

 

Elyza puts her hands on both sides of Alicia’s face, pushing back the wild strands of hair behind her ears. There is a shift in the mood and Elyza closes the distance between their faces again, pressing a chaste kiss on the brunette’s lips, leaving her wanting for more.

 

They press their forehead against the other’s and stop moving for a second, appreciating this simple contact. Both have the knowledge that everything they know can fall apart in a matter of seconds and it terrifies them, but they don’t want things to accelerate because they feel comfortable with the other. Alicia feels overwhelmed every single time the blonde touches her and she never wants this feeling to stop.

 

They stay in this position for several minutes, just close to each other. That’s all they need to be happy and feel safe. Alicia closes her eyes, pressing another kiss on Elyza’s lips. She pulls back to caress the blonde’s cheeks with her thumb. “I’m very lucky to have you.” She breathes out.

 

“If anyone is lucky, it’s me.” Elyza says, pressing a kiss to the brunette’s forehead. “Do you want to go to sleep?”

 

“No, not yet.”

 

Alicia gently pushes the blonde on the mattress, in a sitting position, only to climb up and sit on her thighs. It’s very intimate, she knows this, but she wants to be as close as she can with the blonde. The Bourbon running in her blood was probably the reason behind this bold move, but she couldn’t care less. Elyza’s hands moves from her face to her lower back as she leans for another long, tender kiss. Alicia deepens it, pressing her body against the blonde’s, tilting her head to have a better angle.

 

When Alicia nips at her lower lip, Elyza lets out a strangled moan and her hands lowers down, gently grabbing the brunette’s butt before moving them to her thighs. Alicia sighs and her hips jerk up against her own will.

 

Elyza puts both her hands on the mattress and leans back, looking at her, eyes filled with lust and clenching her jaw. “You’re driving me crazy.” She says in between pants. Elyza’s husky voice is definitely the best thing Alicia ever heard in her entire life.

 

“Oh yeah?” She asks with an innocent voice. Elyza nods frantically as the brunette’s hands slips under her t-shirt, only moving to touch the soft skin of her flat stomach. She does her best to stay still, but she lets out a chuckle when she feels the fingernails gently tickling her sides. “Did I just find your greatest weakness?” Alicia teases, looking down at the uncovered skin above the waistband of the Australian woman’s jeans.

 

“I’m just a little bit ticklish, that’s all.” She lets out a squealing when the brunette moves her hands above her ribcage. “Alicia! Stop, stop!” She groans and tries to wiggle free. “You devil!”

 

Under the pleading words, Alicia finally stops and lowers herself to steal a quick kiss and look in her eyes. Elyza takes this opportunity to roll them, getting on top of the brunette, a smirk on her lips. “Are you?”

 

“What?”

 

“Ticklish.” She presses her mouth against the brunette’s again. In sync, they widen their lips and their tongues meet in a more heated kiss.

 

It takes Alicia’s breath away and she pulls back a second just to answer: “Nope” and they get back to kissing each other. Elyza smiles, her hands moving to replicate the movement. The brunette starts breathing heavily when she feels wandering fingers moving closer to her breasts, only stopping under her bra.

 

She knows the blonde is not hesitating; she wants permission to be granted before doing anything, which Alicia thinks is very sweet of her. Elyza’s mouth makes its way to the brunette’s neck and gently sucks her pulse point.

 

Alicia closes her eyes. “Touch me.” She murmurs, lifting her thighs and intertwining her legs with the blonde’s. It doesn’t take long before Elyza moves her hands, under her t-shirt, gently pressing a thumb over one of her already hardened nipples.

 

It sends a shiver down her spine and Alicia wonders what it would be like to be naked under Elyza, receiving the same treatment. She lets out a hum of pleasure when the thumb gets replaced with the other woman’s full hand, gently grabbing her. It had been a while since she had been touched like this – since Matt, but she doesn’t want to think about him.

 

They don’t hear the door of their room opening, but they definitely hear it when someone clear throat behind them. Elyza literally jumps off Alicia in fear and stuffs her face in her pillow. The two young women are equally frightened.

 

Madison’s eyes are open wide when Alicia looks up. Her mother raises her hands in the air. “I knocked.” She tells them and Alicia groans in frustration, picking up the blanket the blanket and throwing it over her head and body. She wants to be everywhere but here. She’d rather be chased by walkers instead.

 

“Why did you come in?”

 

“I thought you were asleep.” Her mother answers, crossing her hands on her chest. She looks at Elyza and asks reluctantly: “Elyza?” She hears the teenager humming in response, in her pillow. “Do you mind leaving the room for a moment? I’d like to speak with Alicia.”

 

The blonde gets up, face flushed from being caught red-handed and drinking alcohol. “Sure, I’ll be… somewhere else.” She doesn’t know if she meant that for the brunette or her mother. She sprints out of the room in the next second.

 

Alicia removes the blanket of her face only when she feels the mattress shifting at her sides. She doesn’t want to speak, knowing she was too nervous and that she didn’t trust herself. She could say something stupid or irrational and now wasn’t the time – Alicia knows she’s about to have _the conversation_ she wanted to avoid with her mother. She was not ready, but the damage had been done and she knew there’s no way to avoid this conversation.

 

“I have to say… I didn’t expect to walk in on _that_.” Madison starts, gazing down at her daughter.

 

Alicia rolls her eyes, because she would rather be anywhere than in bed with her mother, speaking about her and Elyza making out only a few minutes ago. “Okay.”

 

Madison pinches her lips together and the young brunette doesn’t know if she’s angry or disappointed of her. One thing she knows: she is surprised. “Okay? That’s all you have to say about that?”

 

“I guess so.”

 

“Have you been drinking?” Her mother asks, frowning.

 

Alicia bites the inside of her cheeks. “Yes.” She says. She knows that she is underage and that they shouldn’t have been drinking – it’s the zombie apocalypse and there’s nothing more dangerous than wild and drunk teenagers. Except that they weren’t drunk, they were just _tipsy_ and Alicia had sobered so quickly that she wonders if that wasn’t Elyza’s effects on her rather than the alcohol itself. “Mom, listen I–”

 

“Since how long this… is going on with you and her?”

 

“… not long.” She mutters under her breath.

 

“Not long? You’ve known her for less than a month!”

 

Alicia frowns and grits her teeth together. “Do I need to remind you that almost the entirety of the population have turned into walkers and are trying to eat us?” She sighs and averts her gaze. “And we’ve been through a lot in the past month.”

 

Madison’s glare is cold. “If it wasn’t for our situation…” She waits a moment, trying to compose herself and find the right words, but Alicia cuts her.

 

“Our situation has nothing to do with her.”

 

“You wouldn’t be this close with her.”

 

Alicia lets out a cold chuckle. “You don’t know that, Mom.”

 

“I know you enough, Alicia.”

 

“Apparently not.” She says to her mother. “I’m old enough, I can take my own decisions and if it means I want to have _something_ with Elyza, you don’t get to say anything about it.”

 

“Don’t speak to me in that tone!” Madison says, raising her voice. “You’re confused and not thinking clearly; I’m here for you if you want to talk about it but you shouldn’t trust her, she’s just a stranger.”

 

“She’s not just a stranger to me!” Alicia counters. “She saved my life more times than you, Nick and Travis combined. She could have let me die on that parking lot, at that convenience store, but she didn’t. She went to all the trouble to save Ofelia and Daniel!”

 

“Baby, I don’t know what going through your mind, but this needs to stop before you get hurt.” Madison argues, staring at her daughter. “Or killed.”

 

“You’re with Travis… If I tell you to split up with him because one of you could end up dead, what will you say to me?”

 

“It’s not the same thing.”

 

The young brunette shakes her head. “I don’t see the difference.”

 

“I think that being with Elyza is the way you found to cope with everything going on.” She takes a breath. “I know something happened between you and Mark’s son.”

 

“That’s not what I’m doing.” Alicia sits up in the bed, scowling at her mother.

 

“You think you’re into girls, but you seek for comfort and affection. She gives this to –”

 

She can’t believe what is coming from her own mother’s mouth. She used to be a guidance counselor at high school and deal with similar cases every day. Now, she was analysing her and Alicia hated it. “Do you realize how degrading you are?” She was basically treating her own daughter as a slut. She throws the blanket away, standing up. She walks to the door and turns her head towards Madison. “I’m not into girls, Mom. I’m into _her_.”

 

Alicia walks out the bedroom, slamming the door. If the others didn’t hear their fight before, they sure knew about it now.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, I know there's not much happening in this chapter, but they can't always run away from walkers, right? Tell me what you think about it :) 
> 
> I have a question for you: did you watch The Walking Dead and, if yes, until which season?
> 
> Please, go vote for your favorite couple on for the March Madness! Clarke and Lexa made it to the finals and they're against Bonnie and Damon (they're a thing now??) from The Vampire Diaries. We're ahead of them with 53%, but winning would mean a lot for the LGBTQ society. Here's the link, please go and vote: http://www.zimbio(.)com/brackets/TV+Couples+March+Madness+2016


	14. Chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I love you guys so much.

Alicia refuses to see her mother for the rest of the night, locking herself up in the bathroom. She can’t believe that Madison tried to analyse what she was doing with Elyza, when that wasn’t her business at all. She had no right to tell Alicia that being with the blonde was her way to cope with how their world turned out to be, because she was seeking for comfort and affection. It was very degrading to hear her mother’s opinion; she thought her daughter was desperately seeking for affection to the point she turned towards girls to have some. This isn’t the case at all.

 

She doesn’t want to leave the bathroom, but she knows she’ll eventually have to, either because someone will need to use the toilet or because Elyza would like to talk with her. When Alicia doesn’t hear a sound, she opens the door to look around and then walks to her room. The blonde is not there, but the window is open widely.

 

Approaching the window, she looks outside; its dark, the only source of light being the moonlight, and Alicia can’t really see anything. She’s worried that something had crossed Elyza’s mind and that she suddenly wanted to leave, though she doubts that the Australian woman would risk her life leaving in the middle of the night.

 

The brunette hears a sob and she frowns in confusion. “Elyza?” She asks, leaning on the window frame. “Where are you?”

 

It takes a few seconds before Alicia gets an answer. “Up there.” The blonde says in a strangled voice.

 

Alicia leans more and looks from both side of the roof. Elyza is there, knees pressed against her chest and arms around her legs. It takes a moment before Alicia can join her, because she doesn’t like heights and takes her time, pushing back her fear of falling off the roof. She sits at the blonde’s side and puts a hand on her back.

 

“Hey, why t are you crying?” She asks her, leaning to put her chin on the other woman’s shoulder.

 

Elyza lets out a wet chuckle, trying to get rid of her nervousness. “I don’t know, I guess I’m just being emotional – alcohol was never really my tea.”

 

“It’s okay.” Alicia shushes her and press a kiss to Elyza’s wet cheek. “You don’t need a reason to cry.”

 

“How did it go with your Mom?” The blonde wonders, turning her head to look at her

 

Alicia shrugs nonchalantly. “Not well, I guess?”

 

“I heard yelling.”

 

“She… doesn’t approve of what we’re doing.” The brunette breathes out. “According to her, I was drunk and this is only about _comfort_ and _affection_ to cope with everything.”

 

Elyza shakes her head. “I can believe that.”

 

“She just found out, I think it’s probably normal.”

 

“This doesn’t give her the right to judge you. If anything, she should be happy for you.” The blonde tells her.

 

Alicia nods, but stays quiet. This is not a subject she wants to elaborate on, especially since she just started to calm herself. It was still hard to think about Madison’s reaction, but she wanted to appreciate the quiet night on the roof with Elyza. “Can we stop talking about this?”

 

The blonde wipes her tears from her cheeks. “Yeah.” She bites her lower lip. “You wanna go back inside?”

 

“Yes, let’s do that.”

 

* * *

 

They wake up the next morning and Alicia immediately gets outside the room. It’s not that she doesn’t want to stay in bed with Elyza, it’s because she doesn’t want her mother to come and interrupt them in another intimate moment like the previous night.

 

She takes her time in the bathroom and finally goes downstairs. Nick is still sleeping on the couch and she walks slowly not to disturb him. She finds Travis and Chris in the kitchen, talking quietly. Alicia’s stepbrother looks like he has a massive hangover and his father seems to be scolding him.

 

Their eyes are on her the second she walks into the kitchen and Alicia’s neutral expression remains unfazed. She’s surprised that her mother is not with Travis, but she can read on his face that he’s aware of the situation between Alicia and his fiancée.

 

“Good morning, Alicia.” Travis tells her with a smile. The brunette and Chris remain silent until he starts speaking again. “Chris, would you excuse us for a moment?”

 

His son huffs at him but complies with his father’s will, getting out of the room. Alicia feels the shift in her mood. She doesn’t want to speak with her stepfather about her and Elyza, it’s none of his business.

 

“What?” She lets out coldly.

 

“Your mother spoke to me about last night.” He starts reluctantly, as if he’s not sure of what he has to say.

 

“So?”

 

“I want to apologize on her behalf.” He gives her a little smile and she admits to herself that Travis surprises her. “She told me she wasn’t feeling that great and… walking on you and Elyza, it didn’t really help her mood.”

 

She doesn’t want to have a conversation about sex with him, though. “That doesn’t mean that she can call me an _attention whore_.”

 

The tanned man frowns at her. “She did not say that.”

 

“She clearly implied it.”

 

They look at each other for a few more seconds before he speaks again. “What you’re going – getting closer to someone – it can be very dangerous. You could put her and yourself in danger. I agree with her on this point.”

 

She rolls her eyes at him. “That’s not up to you, though.”

 

“Alicia, please hear me out.” He says on a serious tone. “I’m happy that you found someone, even with the world crumbling down around us. I really do; if she can help you to face each day, it’s a very good thing.” He looks at her and the shadow of a smile appears at the corners of her lips. “I know Madison said things that weren’t very nice last night.”

 

“That she did.”

 

“But, it’s just because she wants to protect you. It’s not a good excuse, I know, but she’s pretty shaken up. You have to give her that.”

 

“I can protect myself just fine, Travis.” She retorts, crossing her arms on her chest. “I proved myself many times.”

 

“You did, but anything, literally anything can happen. One moment is all it takes for the rotters to bite you. Or her.” He releases a long sigh. “I just hope that you know what you’re doing. If you get too attached to her and she dies…” He trails out, trying to figure out the right words to say.

 

“I prefer not to think about this outcome.”

 

“Just like I don’t imagine your mother dying.” He says, putting a hand on the young brunette’s shoulder. “Just be careful, alright?”

 

“Yeah, okay.”

 

“If you ever need to talk to anyone about _this_ , you know you can always talk to me, right?”

 

Alicia nods. Travis might not be her real father, but he was the closest that she had for a father figure in her life since her dad died from the car accident. Even if she don’t especially like him because he's not her dad, she knows she can still trust him. He had saved her life as many times as Elyza and he showed her that he cares.

 

She takes a box of cereals, opens a can of food and retaliates to her room.

 

* * *

 

The atmosphere is tense when everyone is finally up. Alicia still refuses to talk to her mother and Elyza makes herself as small as possible. Actually, both of them try to avoid the conversations.

 

Everyone seems to know that the tension in the air is because of Alicia and Madison’s fight from the previous night, though they don’t mention it. Chris, Nick, Ophelia and Daniel do not know the subject of the fight they had.

 

Madison looks pretty terrible; even Chris, that has a massive hangover, looks radiant compared the older woman. Alicia remembers Travis mentioning that her mother wasn’t feeling great before they had the fight. When she starts coughing, that’s when they start to worry. She has to put her hand on Ofelia’s shoulder to keep balance. The Salvadoran woman looks at her with worried eyes, Madison tries to give her a reassuring smile.

 

“I’m fine.” She croaks out, starting to cough again.

 

Travis walks up to her and pinches his lips together. “You don’t look fine, Madison.”

  

Alicia can’t say that seeing her mother is sick doesn’t worry her. They are in a world where medication is rare, hard and very dangerous to find. If Madison’s health state gets worse, she doesn’t know what they’ll do. She could require serious medical help and she doubts that they’ll find a doctor nearby.

 

“You should've stay in bed if you're sick.” Daniel tells Alicia’s mother.

 

Madison looks like she’s about to argue against this, but she starts coughing again. She puts her hand in front of her mouth and Alicia thinks that her mother is about to cough one of her lungs if it keeps going like that. When she finally stops, she glances down at her hand and her face crisps in a grimace.

 

“Mom?” Nick asks, taking her wrist to look at the blood in her hand. "You're bleeding!"

 

“Don’t touch her Nick, we don’t know if it’s contagious or not.” Daniel warns, looking at the younger man.

 

Alicia’s blood turns cold as she looks at Elyza. She looks back at her, her face turning white. It could be a fatal disease and be contagious at the same time. 

 

Madison lets out a long breath and her knees buckled. Nick is quick to move and puts his arm under his shoulder, supporting her.

 

“We should get her to your room.” Chris tells his father, looking at his stepmother with the same look everyone has.

 

They listen to Chris and move Madison, who is about to pass out, to the room she shares with Travis. Blood drips on her chin when she coughs again and Alicia hates to hear how painful that sounds. She couldn’t believe that just the night before, she was fighting with her mother; now she was coughing blood.

 

Instead of following everyone inside Travis and Madison’s room, Alicia decides to retaliate to her room with Elyza. It’s a little while after noon and they were supposed to leave to look at the cars they crossed on their way to the farm house, the day before. Now that this was getting on the way of their plans, Alicia preferred to stay in her room. She didn’t feel like getting outside and appreciating the sun, not now that she knows her mother is sick and it could possibly be deadly.

 

When they finally close the door behind them, Alicia buries her face in the blonde’s neck and releases a long and deep sigh. “You’re worried about your mother.” Elyza says, hugging her tightly.

 

“I don’t know what’s going to happen to her.” Alicia continues, feeling her chest constrict on itself.

 

“Whatever that is… I hope it’s not contagious.” Elyza presses a kiss on the brunette’s forehead.

 

* * *

 

It turns out that Madison isn’t the only one getting sick with that strange disease. The second one that started to feel dizzy was Ofelia, in the middle of the evening. Everyone starts to really worry about this thing, because they don’t know the extent of the symptoms. The next one is Chris that suddenly collapse in the middle of the living room, hitting his head on the ground because of the fall. He he told that he judged that unimportant to share about feeling sick with anyone, thinking that it would have passed, but it didn’t and Travis was both mad and very worried about his son.

 

With three of them sick, they don’t know what to do. It is obvious that they don’t have enough medication to treat them. Madison is not getting any better; she is burning with fever, but claims to be very cold. Ofelia and Chris are submitted to the same symptoms too.

 

The others feel like they need to make a decision, to do anything to help them. “We should get out there.” Alicia tells them. She had talked with her mother and they silently agreed to not worry about her relationship with Elyza for now. There was more important matters that needed to be taken care of. “We can’t stay inside and hope they’ll get better without any medication. This is not going to happen.”

 

“Elyza is right, Travis.” Daniel says, glancing at her daughter sleeping on one of the living room’s couch.

 

“We can’t leave them either.” Alicia’s stepfather counters, crossing his arms on his chest.

 

“We can split up.” Nick tells them. “Five of us are not sick. Two can stay here and watch over them.” He takes a brief pause. “The rest can hit the road and try to find medication.”

 

“That’s not a bad idea.” Elyza points out. “I’m willing to get out of the house to help them.”

 

Alicia looks at the blonde, puffing her chest with confidence. “I’ll go with you.” Travis frowns, looking at Elyza then Alicia. He doesn’t sure about this plan. The brunette glances at him and she says: “Elyza is our best shot, she knows a little bit what kind of medication they need.”

 

“I do too.” Nick counters, rolling his eyes at his sister.

 

Travis sighs. “You might know a thing or two about medication, but not from a medical point of view, Nick.”

 

“I know the effects, that’s all it takes.”

 

Elyza shakes her head negatively. “No, it’s not all it takes. There is medication that can cause severe pain if not used correctly. We’re not going on a supply run to take medication I don’t know.” She refrains herself from groaning; she knew she couldn’t trust Nick when it comes to medical drugs. If anything, Alicia’s brother will find something interesting, shove it in his pants and take it back to the farm house without telling them. Then, they’ll have another problem on their hands. She couldn’t permit this. “You’re not coming with us.”

 

“Travis can stay here and watch over them.” Daniel says. “I’ll go with Elyza and Madison. I believe you will take care of my daughter like she’s your own?”

 

“I will.” The other tanned man says. “You should eat something and hurry up, if you want to come back before nightfall.”

 

* * *

 

Daniel, Elyza and Alicia hit the road only thirty minutes after everyone agreed to the plan. They planned to look for a local drug store and ransack a few houses, for the food, on their way back. It’s a simple plan and they hope that they won’t find any trouble on their route.

 

The brunette starts regretting everything about the farm house; since they were there, things were not fine. First, she had to deal with her mother finding out about her and Elyza. It shouldn’t have been a big thing, but they fought. Then, Madison had gotten sick. Chris and Ofelia started to show sign of this mysterious disease too and it started to get bad rapidly. Alicia hopes that no one would die and no one else get sick.

 

The Salvadoran man drives the car and they keep quiet for most of the way, letting Elyza go through the maps in the front seat looking for a drug store nearby. Alicia, in the backseat, tries to find a way to stop thinking about this disease. What if they already caught the virus, but it didn’t started to develop on the other non-sick members of the group?

 

“Got one!” Elyza tells them with a squeal. “It’s not a drug store, but a veterinarian clinic.”

 

“And you think there will be medication compatible with us?” Daniel wonders, still looking at the road but frowning in confusion. The Salvadoran man, before the zombie apocalypse, was only a barber. It was a chance that he crossed Travis’s path and that they stuck together afterwards. He clearly didn’t know a lot about medication.

 

The blonde turns her head to give him a wide smile. “They are compatible, yes. Though certain are used for veterinarian use only, but they’ll have a warning sign for that on the pill containers.”

 

“Is that far from here?” Alicia asks, tilting her head to see Elyza.

 

“No, it’s just four miles from her, actually.” She looks at the brunette and smirk. “We shouldn’t have trouble to get in and get out quickly. There’s almost no other commercial buildings around, only a few houses.”

 

“Good.” Daniel agrees. “The sooner we’re out of here is the better.”

 

Since the distance between their location and the veterinarian clinic is short, there’s no point in putting on music. They just enjoy the calm, the only sound being the soft roaring of the SUV. Elyza moves her hand, sliding it between her seat and the door. It finds Alicia’s knee and it surprises her a little bit, not expecting this kind of contact in front of Daniel – even though he wasn’t aware of this.

 

Alicia grabs the blonde’s hand, sliding hers inside and intertwining their fingers together. She sees the hint of a smile on Elyza’s lips, before she turns her head to look at the road in front of her. The brunette feels reassured and somehow has the feeling that everything is going to be alright. It has to be.

 

They arrive at the clinic too soon, according to the teenagers. They still wanted to hold each other’s hand, but they needed to get inside and find medication for the sick members of their group.

 

Daniel puts the car on park and removes the keys from the ignition. He leaves them in the console, just in case. He doesn’t want to have be on foot if anything happens inside the building; with his luck, they could just slip out of his jeans and fall on the ground without noticing it. “Are you guys ready?”

 

Elyza reluctantly removes her hand from Alicia’s and look at the older man with a smile. “I was born ready.”

 

Alicia sure doesn’t have this kind of confidence, but she is ready enough to face any walker coming their way. She swipes the area with her eyes but doesn’t see anything. The place is deserted, much to her relief. She unbuckles her seatbelt and gets out of the car, knife in her hand. She had borrowed Elyza’s pistol again, this time with the holster she could strap on her thigh. If anything happens and they’re in a bad situation, which she hopes not, it would be easy for her to reach for the gun.

 

Daniel and Elyza get out of the car too, the blonde sporting a smirk on her lips. “Okay, let’s do this and go back home.” Alicia feels a pang in her chest because they don’t have a home anymore, but they do have people to get back to.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You know shit is going to happen when I just decide to stop a chapter before the characters are about to enter a place. Hehehe.


	15. Chapter 15

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My Lexark story is the one with the biggest word count, with almost 60k words! Yay!

Alicia has to admit this to herself: she had been standing in front of the veterinarian clinic without any big expectations. She had been wrong to think that everything would be sunshine and rainbows inside the establishment. As soon as Daniel opens the glass front door, the awful smell hits them and she has to put her hand on her nose to block it from this odor.

 

Elyza grimaces and knocks on the door, the sound resonating in the building. They hear the groans and immediately know that there is more than only one walker inside. Alicia sees them shuffling towards them and she tightens her grip on her knife. “We should close the door, let them out one at the time.” Alicia tells them.

 

They don’t have the time to considerate their options. Elyza pushes the door close and the first walkers hit the glass, pushing against it to try and get out. There might be six or seven walkers and Elyza knows that she couldn’t push the door and hold them back. “Fuck, fuck, Alicia!” She growls, pushing with all her force. She would have preferred to say those words in another context, not while stopping a small horde of walkers form getting out of a veterinarian clinic.

 

The brunette comes to help and they look at Daniel with panicked expression, while he doesn’t bats an eye. Alicia remembers that he was the one letting out about 2,000 walkers out of the stadium, when they were still back in the capital of California. This man was a genius for this because he let an entire army of walker towards the military base, which helped them to save Nick. The only consequences of this action: Eliza, Travis’s ex-wife and Chris’s mother, was bitten when they were fleeing from the same walkers that Daniel release from the stadium.

 

“Daniel, behind you!” Elyza tells him.

 

There’s a lone walker shuffling towards him, half of his face eaten. The man ends it in a matter of second and gives them a look. “Let one out.”

 

“I don’t know if we can let just one out.” Alicia says, pushing with all her forces. “We won’t be able to close the door after, they’ll rush outside.”

 

Daniel rolls his eyes. “Then we switch. Elyza, take care of them?”

 

“Sure, give all the dirty work to the young lady. Thanks, _hermano_.” She says, releasing a nervous laugh.

 

The Salvadoran man cracks a smile and Alicia thinks that this is not the time to joke at all. There was at least six walkers willing to do everything to devour them; not exactly the time for them to bond either. Daniel replaces Elyza and they follow the plan without more trouble.

 

Eight permanently dead walkers later – seven from the clinic and the lonely one – they can finally get inside the veterinarian clinic. They still have their weapons up in the air, just in case a walker decides to surprise them. They don’t come across any more walkers, but what they see horrifies Alicia: there are piles of dead animal bodies on the ground, where they walk. There are guts spilled around and literally a pool of blood.

 

Because the blood, gut and animal carcasses is no enough, the smell is what really gets to her. Alicia can’t help but retches. This is possibly the worst thing she have seen since the outbreak. She tries to keep it together, to breathe with her mouth, but even this is not enough for her stomach to hold her last meal. She turns on herself, putting both of her hands on her knees, as she starts emptying herself on the blood stained ground.

 

It doesn’t take long before she is done. Elyza struggles too, a hand over her mouth and nose. Daniel’s grimace of disgust says it all: they can’t stay inside the veterinarian clinic. It’s too much for them.

 

“Out.” Elyza manages to say and Alicia almost sprints out towards the exit.

 

Once they’re finally outside, they all take a long and deep breath. It’s not enough for Alicia to stop smelling the horrendous odor of the piles of dead animal bodies. She should have thought about this before: people had pets before the apocalypse. A lot of them abandoned them in their houses, in veterinarian clinics or in animal refugees. Thinking that they would have walked into a clean and safe place was foolish.

 

Daniel seems fine, but Elyza’s face turns green as they walk towards their car. “Oh god.” She murmurs before it’s time for her stomach to give up.  Alicia adverts her gaze while the blonde throws up her last meal too. When she’s done, she starts coughing and presses a hand on her chest.

 

“Are you alright?” The Salvadoran man asks, looking around to see if there’s any walker coming in their direction.

 

She winces and looks up to him. “Would you believe me if I’d say I am?” He shakes his head negatively. “I think I caught that stupid illness.”

 

It’s what Alicia feared the most when Elyza started coughing. “We should go back to the farm house.” She says, trying to evaluate any other option.

 

“We probably should.” The blonde starts, looking at Alicia. “But all we did was get in this stupid veterinarian clinic and we can’t come back without medication, not if I am too starting to get sick.”

 

The brunette shots a glance at Daniel, who nods. “She’s right, we need to bring medication.”

 

“Elyza, you’re getting sick and we don’t know how long you can hold on.” Alicia argues, approaching the blonde. “You can’t risk your life like that.”

 

“I can and I will.” She counters. “Without medication, your _mother_ could die.”

 

It’s something that Alicia didn’t think about and it makes Elyza’s argument solid. Madison what she sickest of them and desperately needed the medication. Then there’s Daniel’s daughter, who keeps getting worse just like Alicia’s mother. Chris banged up his head and he wasn’t in the healthiest conditions either. They couldn’t wait to get back, wait another night and then go on a supply run again.

 

“If your condition deteriorates, I’ll drag your ass back to the farm house by myself if I need to.” Alicia warns, earning a small smirk from the blonde.

 

“Deal.”

 

“Okay girls, let’s go.”

 

* * *

 

An hour later, the small group ransacked a total of three houses on their way back to the farm house. They were about to search a fourth one when Elyza started coughing again and spat blood. She didn’t dared to fight Alicia when she told Daniel to get inside the car and head home.

 

In the first house, there wasn’t anything interesting other than food and aspirins. They found codeine in the second place and a bunch of pills that they didn’t really bother to look at in the last one. They had found enough for a while even if they didn’t had the time to search a fourth house.

 

Elyza and Alicia are sitting on the backseat. Daniel claimed that he would find the way back easily with the map and that Elyza should relax on the backseat with her. After the events of the day, she is not even slightly bothered when the blonde leans her head on her shoulder and slides her hand in hers, seeking for comfort. She knows she shouldn’t get close with her, but she can’t help it. She wants to reassure Elyza and herself that everything is going to be alright.

 

Daniel doesn’t say a thing from all the ride back to the farm house, concentrated on the road, which is something Alicia is very grateful of. She wouldn’t have accepted his remarks, if he said some, about their closeness.  

 

“I don’t feel good.” Elyza tells her, clenching her jaw afterwards.

 

“Your skin is burning up.” Alicia replies. She unzips her backpack and takes out a bottle of water. “Drink, I don’t want you to get dehydrated.”

 

She takes it in her unoccupied hand and brings it to her mouth, drinking a large sip of it. She releases a breath and smiles to the brunette. “Thank you.”

 

It takes ten more minutes before they finally takes the road to the farm house. Alicia feels relieved to finally arrive at their destination. She helps Elyza to get out of the car and to support her weight while they walk to the front door. Daniel holds the door for them and she drags the blonde to the living room, where she helps her again to lay down on the last couch.

 

“You should get some rest.” Alicia tells her, a faint reassuring smile on her lips.

 

When she’s about to get up and leave, Elyza grabs her hand tightly. “Don’t leave me.” She croaks out, trying to hold the cough in her throat.

 

“I’m going to be right back, okay?” The blonde looks at Alicia for more explanation. “I’m just going to give Travis the supplies we gathered and see how my mom is holding up.”

 

“Okay.” She says, closing her eyes. “I’ll just… sleep…”

 

It doesn’t take long before Elyza is sleeping soundly. Alicia gets out the living room and moves to her mother’s room, bringing both her and the Australian woman’s back pack with her.

 

Travis and Daniel are already in the room and Alicia is surprised to see her mother awake despite her mysterious sickness. She smiles when she sees her daughter coming inside the room. “Hey, baby.” Her voice is flattened. “Are you alright?”

 

“I should be the one asking you that, Mom.” Alicia complains, sitting at the edge of the bed. “You should worry about yourself a little more.”

 

She nods and clenches her jaw. “I think I’m getting worse.”

 

“We found medication, Madison. This can help you to get better.” Daniel tells her. “We’ve got a bottle of aspirins and a few other things. We’ll need to make sure that Nick doesn’t get his hands on it.”

 

“And we’ll have to ration the medication too.” Alicia mutters.

 

“What?” Travis looks at his stepdaughter, eyes wide opened.

 

“Elyza’s sick too.” She sighs and gives her stepfather a reassuring smile. “I’m going back to her, tell me if there’s anything I can do to help.”

 

Alicia doesn’t linger around to see her mother’s disapproving look. She walks directly in the living room, hurrying up when she hears coughing. She sees Elyza, still on her back, about to choke because of the blood rushing out of her mouth. The brunette’s heart jumps and she helps the sick young woman to change position and be on the side.

 

She crouches to be at the same level as the blonde, looking at her with a worried look. “I’m okay.” Elyza manages to murmur, gazing back through hooded eyes.

 

“Shut up, you’re not.” Alicia says, clenching her jaw. There’s nothing worse than imagining Elyza getting worse.

 

There’s a small smirk forming at the corner of her mouth at the brunette’s words. “Can I have water?” She asks. Alicia takes the bottle of water she carried everywhere since the car. She helps Elyza to move in a sitting position and let her drink half of the water bottle.

 

Alicia puts her hand in the blonde’s hair, starting to gently scrape her fingers against the scalp. Elyza hums and closes her eyes. “It feels good.” She tells the brunette.

 

“Lay on your side, I’ll continue.” Elyza moves with difficulty, but eventually lays her head on Alicia’s thighs and lets of a soft sigh. Alicia immediately starts to play in the blonde’s hair again and it doesn’t take long before she falls asleep again.

 

* * *

 

The medication they brought from their supply run seems to reduce the pain of the four sick members of their group. Madison even found the strength to eat warm chicken noodle soup and everyone feels relieved because she refused to eat since she started getting sick, claiming that her stomach couldn’t hold any food.

 

It didn’t take long for Ofelia to get better, when they started giving her aspirins and codeine medication. Her father has been watching her every moves, even though he knows that she’s not sick anymore; Alicia can’t blame him, Ofelia is the only remaining member of his family and she understands the fear of losing someone.

 

Chris is the worse, but they think it’s normal because he hit his head on the wooden floor. They knew it would take longer for him to expulse the illness out of his immune system, because his body had to also treat his head injury.

 

Elyza sleeps most of the time, but they moved her to her and Alicia’s room, with the help of Travis, for her to be on something more comfortable than the couch. She could walk, not totally on her own, but it was still better than not being capable of aligning a foot in front of the other. When she’s finally in their bed, Alicia stays a lot with the blonde to give her comfort – and also to reassure herself.

 

None of them get out of the house in the meantime, not wanting to risk starting to feel unwell on a supply run. They have enough provisions to last for three more days if they make rations. It’s not an emergency for now.

 

Alicia is getting bored, because there’s really nothing to do. She wants to make this place safer, but half the members of their group being sick doesn’t really help. They can’t leave them inside while they work outside. Someone has to watch over them.

 

She comes downstairs to find Travis sitting on a chair, in front of the couch Chris is sleeping on. She frowns and asks his stepfather: “Is everything alright?” He doesn’t look so sure, so Alicia walks up to him to give a look to her stepbrother.

 

“I don’t think he’s getting better.” He lets out, clenching his fists together. “The medication worked on the others.”

 

“He needs time to heal.” Alicia tries to comfort him.

 

Travis shakes his head. “He slept all the afternoon and didn’t even open an eye.”

 

They stop talking and Alicia focuses to listen at Chris’s breathing. It’s irregular and he looks like he has trouble to breathe. It’s definitely not a good sign, but the brunette doesn’t have any idea of what to do with him. The mysterious disease seems to attack the immune system and they ran out of ideas to help the sick members of their group.

 

Alicia lets out a sigh and shakes her head. “I don’t know what to do.” She tells Travis. “Elyza is still sick... and I don’t think she could even help him, because we don’t know what this illness is.”

 

“We need to have an eye on him. Permanently.”

 

Alicia agrees.

 

* * *

 

Chris stops breathing in the middle of the night and Alicia doesn’t know how to react. She’s not sure if he really stopped breathing or that was only her imagination tricking her, but Elyza confirmed it. The blonde had found the strength to get out of bed, claiming that she was tired of just tired of being contained between the four walls of their bedrooms.

 

“I think he’s not breathing.” Alicia says, biting her lips. Tears were forming at the corners of her eyes at the idea of her stepbrother dying.

 

Elyza leans on him, getting her ear close to Chris’s mouth to hear if he’s breathing or not. She glances at Alicia and shakes her head. “Get Travis.” She tells her and the brunette understands the emergency in her words.

 

She sprints to her mother and Travis’s room. Alicia doesn’t care if they’re sleeping, she shakes the tanned man shoulders hurriedly. “Wake up!” She yells and his eyes shot open at the sound of her voice. “Chris stopped breathing!”

 

Madison wakes up too and gets up. Travis tries to get her staying in the bed, but Alicia’s mother gives him a cold stare and they all make their way in the living room in a hurry. There was no way Madison would stay in bed after hearing her daughter’s words. She is too worried about Chris’s health for that.

 

They find Elyza straddling Chris’s hips and giving him a cardiac massage. “Chris!” Travis says, kneeling on the ground to look in his son’s eyes; they were lifeless. Alicia could feel her stepfather starting to panic.

 

Elyza growls, the physical effort of the cardiac massage was tiring her rapidly, especially since she was just as sick as Chris. “Travis, you know mouth to mouth?” He positively shakes his head; it wasn’t a requirement for his former job as a teacher to know first aid, but it was always good to know it.

 

As soon as she stops massaging Chris, Travis pinches his son’s nose and begins to do mouth to mouth. Alicia hates that she can’t do anything to help, but she feels as if she’s going to be in their way if she does anything. It’s a horrible feeling, to know she’s useless in this situation.

 

They keep going like that for a few long and terrifying minutes.

 

Until Elyza stops and releases a shaky breath and her hands start trembling on their own. Travis refuses to give up on his son and keeps doing mouth to mouth until he is exhausted.

 

Alicia doesn’t know when the tears started to flow on her cheeks, but she notices it only when Elyza looks up at her with glossy eyes. The blonde knows that there’s nothing they can do after a certain amount of time and they already passed it. Chris could have been saved if they had the proper equipment, paramedics or doctors… but now, it was too late and she hated that she did everything in her power to save him, but it still wasn’t enough.

 

Elyza looks at Travis and tears started to fall on her red cheeks. “I’m sorry.” She puts a hand on his shoulder to give him comfort, though she knows it’s far from being enough to consulate him.

 

They hear the footsteps coming from the second floor and then the creaking of the stairs. Daniel, Ofelia and Nick were joining them in the living room, not knowing that Chris was already gone.

 

Ofelia is the first to burst into tears when she sees Chris’s lifeless body on the couch. She turns to her father, who hugs her tightly and gazes down at Travis with a sorry look. Each of them had already experienced a loss, whether it was before or after the outbreak. They know how hard it is to lose a family member.

 

Travis doesn’t say a word for a while. He just sobs over his son’s dead body and passes his hands on his face and in his hair, desperately trying to believe that he is only sleeping. When he speaks, it’s with a wavering voice. “I want to be alone with him.” Everyone, even Madison, complies.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please don't hate me.


	16. Chapter 16

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is mostly a filler chapter and it's shorter, but I hope you'll like it anyways.
> 
> It ends with fluff (gladly).

Madison tried several times to be with Travis, but her fiancé wouldn’t let go of his son’s lifeless body. It’s a heart-breaking scene to see the man crying over Chris, his hands touching his now cold skin, desperately trying to convince himself that this wasn’t the reality, that his son was still alive and healthy. She eventually gives up trying to comfort Travis, seeing that giving him time to cry his son was all he truly needed.

 

Travis is sitting on the couch, Chris’s head resting on his thighs. It has been hours since his son’s last breath and the former teacher hates himself for not realizing the extent of the disease. He thought that everything would be alright, since Ofelia, Madison and even Elyza had started to get better. He knows that his death is mostly due because they didn’t have the right medication and equipment to save him, but it still hurts.

 

He knows that he can't keep crying over his child’s death and that they’ll need to take care of his body. The yard was large enough and they could bury his body somewhere Travis thinks Chris would have liked to be buried. He deserves this.

 

Travis wipes his tears and looks down at Chris’s pale skin, clenching his jaw and trying to fight the tears forming in his eyes again. He needs to be strong for him.

 

That is when Travis notices his son’s fingers moving slightly. Just a twitch, but enough to have his full attention. It happens again and that’s when fear starts to grow in the tanned man’s chest; when a dead person starts moving again, it can never be a good thing. He slowly reaches for his knife, on the living room’s table, and looks at Chris with a worried look.

 

His son didn’t deserve any of this. He had never really be an easy kid to deal with, always trying to put Travis and his mother on the edge, but always a very caring person. He was interested in social media and had this great confidence in himself; he wanted to make a difference in the world. Since the outbreak, Travis knew that there was a chance that they wouldn’t all make it out alive, but it still hurts a lot to know the one of the firsts to die, in their group, was his son.

 

Chris’s body has a spasm, making Travis hold his breath and lets his eyes travel on his chest. He definitely started breathing again. “Chris?” The tanned man asks reluctantly. A tear escapes his eye and falls on his cheek, then on his son’s forehead.

 

He understands that it’s not Chris anymore, but a walker. It’s not supposed to matter if the walker’s body used to be his son’s; if he bites Travis, he’ll die too. What only preoccupies the former teacher is that Chris turned without a walker biting him. It could be because of the disease or something else, but Travis is not eager to find this out. His eyes open and stares at Travis for a second. It’s definitely not a human anymore.

 

The walker lets out a groan and moves his hands, trying to grab Travis’s head and plunge his teeth in his throat. The older man lets out a sob and stick his knife in Chris’s head. Blood starts slipping out of the wound and staining on the tanned man’s pants.

 

“I’m so sorry Chris.” He says, before bursting into tears and retrieving the knife. The weapon falls to the ground, his hands starting to shake. “You didn’t deserve any of this.”

 

Travis would do anything to bring his son back to life. He would do anything to just fight with him one last time or see his smile. He remembers when he was still a toddler, running the house with his favorite toy, always happy to see his daddy. Chris had always been a little young man with a lot of energy and love to give, even though, in his teenage years, they begun to not get along all the time. Travis couldn’t blame his son, because he was divorcing with his mother and that had been rough on him. And the outbreak happened and their lives were changed forever.

 

The sun was starting to peak out and Travis decided to get to work; he wanted to dig a grave for his son to rest peacefully in.

 

* * *

 

Elyza fights the urge to close her eyes; she is exhausted, yes, but trying to comfort Alicia is her biggest concern. They had stayed up all night and she hated to hear the soft sobs that escaped from the brunette’s mouth every now and then. It’s heart-breaking.

 

They are in their bedroom and Alicia sitting between Elyza’s legs, back pressed against her chest. The brunette knows she should be with her mother and Travis right now, trying to comfort them, but she can’t get around the idea of getting out of bed and facing the reality. She doesn’t want to move, she just wants to stay in the blonde’s arms and forget how cruel this new world can be.

 

Alicia feels Elyza pressing a comforting kiss on her shoulder.  “I’m sorry I couldn’t save him.” The blonde lets out, resting her forehead against Alicia’s back.

 

“You did your best, don’t blame this on you.” A few sobs and she wipes the tears flooding her cheeks with the back of her hands.

 

“He was so young.” There is a moment of silence, only interrupted by a distracting sound coming from outside the farm house. “Do you hear this?” Alicia nods. “Do you mind if I check by the window what it is?”

 

“It’s fine.”

 

She is reluctant to let go of the brunette, but she lets out a sigh and finally pull out from the comforting embrace. She gives a quick glance to Alicia, who has red cheeks and puffy eyes because of crying. She smiles reassuringly and moves to the window.

 

It’s Travis, a shovel in his hand, digging in the ground. He’s alone and Elyza wants to slap him for being outside alone. It’s reckless and she didn’t want him to suffer the same fate than Chris.

 

Elyza sees the body wrapped with a tablecloth and she knows it’s Chris. She swallows with difficulty and turns to look at Alicia. “It’s Travis, he’s out there… you know.” The brunette nods, understanding what Elyza is trying to imply. “I’ll be right back, okay?”

 

Alicia doesn’t protest, so the blonde picks up her leather jacket to put it on. She gets out of the room, moving downstairs. She gives a quick glance to the living room and where used to be Chris’s body, when he gave his last breath. She sees the blood stains and immediately starts wondering about what happened after everyone let Travis alone.

 

She pushes the front door of the farm house, taking her knife out. She sees the new addition: a few more walkers were lying on the ground, not so far from the ones they killed a few days ago, when they found the place.

 

After making a stop in the barn to take a shovel, she joins Travis and silently starts helping him. He doesn’t even bother to look at her, he just keeps shovelling. Elyza hates to see him in this state, but there’s nothing she can do that could ease the pain of losing his only child.

 

* * *

 

It takes about fifteen minutes to dig a hole in the ground for Chris’s body. In the meantime, everyone gets out of the farm house and joins Elyza and Chris to help. It’s still quiet, except from the sound of the shovel digging in the ground. Travis picked the emplacement: under a tree where there was flowers growing.

 

When it’s time to put Chris into the ground, everyone no one is ready to face the emotional backlash. Travis starts to cry again and Madison comes to hug him tightly.

 

Elyza moves to Alicia’s sides, glancing at her a few times. She wants to hug her as hard as Madison does with Travis, but she knows it would put the adults in an uncomfortable position. Especially Madison, since she walked on them making out and warned Alicia for her relationship with the blonde.

 

No one dares to say a word. They keep sobbing silently, looking at the body covered with a tablecloth. Alicia keeps staring at the blood stain on the tissue and starts wondering. Chris wasn’t bleeding at the time of his death. She wants to ask Travis, but knows the subject better be avoided for a while.

 

Daniel clears his throat to have Travis’s attention and they look at each other for a few seconds. They still have to bury Chris and no one else would do it for them. The Salvadoran man lowers himself to grab Chris’s legs and Travis grabs him behind the shoulders. They move carefully and lowers the body in the hole.

 

It takes less times to cover the body than it took to dig the grave. When the hole is totally covered, Travis lets the shovel on the ground and turns to bury his face in Madison’s neck.

 

Alicia slides her hand in Elyza’s and leans her head on her shoulder. She needs the physical comfort. Nick puts a hand on his sister’s back before turning and walking towards the house; he had never been the kind of guy that deals well with people’s sadness and his own. He prefers to be alone and suffer on his own.

 

They stay silent, not moving, until a walker makes its presence known and they have to take care of it. After this, they finally make their way inside the house, purposely avoiding to be in the living room.

 

* * *

 

“I can’t stay in this place anymore.”

 

It has been only two days since Chris’s death, but everyone is on the edge, especially Travis. They can get the mysterious disease and their youngest member’s death out of their heads and it’s slowly crushing them. They gather in the kitchen to talk about their next move; Travis is the one that requested the meeting, because as much as he doesn’t want to leave his son’s body behind, the farm house is not what they expected and they need to figure things out.

 

Madison nods at his fiancé’s statement. “I agree that we need to get out of here.”

 

The others are thinking the same way. The farm house is not safe enough for them. The fresh memory of their loss was only accentuating the necessity of finding another safer refuge. “Where do we go next?” Nick asks, biting his thumbnail.

 

“That is one thing we need to discuss, boy.” Daniel answers. “Do we look for another farm?”

 

Travis shrugs. “A farm might not be the safest place if we’re thinking on the long-term.”

 

Alicia is slowly starting to regret leaving Mark’s group. His place was big enough to welcome them all; there was a lot of rooms and the large brick fence around the house provided a lot of safety. She doesn’t want to tell her opinion though, knowing that Daniel was most likely going to refuse. The Salvadoran man didn’t trust other people and he had good reasons not to.

 

“Maybe all we can do is drive around to find a property with large fences?” Ofelia proposes, crossing her arms on her chest. “We don’t know how long it would take before we find one, but that’s always better than staying here.”

 

Elyza deposes the can of food she just finished. “I would prefer that. We just have to make sure that we have enough gas to drive around for a while.” Alicia is not so sure about this option, but if everyone agrees with it, she wouldn’t complain. She only wants to stay with her group.

Travis bites his lower lip. “We can do that and gather supplies at the same time. I agree with Ofelia.”

 

“I’m following Travis.” Madison says, looking at her son for an answer.

 

Nick nods. “I’m fine with that.”

 

“Me too.” Alicia agrees.

 

Madison gives them a small and reassuring smile. “Okay, since everyone is fine with this idea, should we start gathering our things right now and leave?”

 

Daniel glances at the woman. “We should, the sooner is the better.”

 

* * *

 

In about thirty minutes, the group is physically ready to leave the farm house. Mentally, they are not; they have the feeling that they’re leaving someone behind, which is somehow true. The member that has the hardest time to let go is Travis. He kept glancing at his son’s grave, tears in his eyes, wondering if he should ask them to stay a little longer, but he knows that waiting isn’t good for them. They need to hit the road and find a better place.

 

The others know how hard it is and they still accept to wait a moment before leaving. Alicia finds this to be more difficult and she doesn’t know why; maybe it’s because this is their final goodbyes to Chris and it feels so… definitive.

 

Elyza looks down at the soil and she pinches her lips. She always hated to say goodbye. She removes her backpack from her shoulder and search inside for something. Alicia stares at her curiously, until she pulls something out of the bag. An apple.

 

The blonde takes a step and crouches, deposing the apple over Chris’s grave with an apologetic smile. She had met him when he was hurt and she took care of his injury. They had this timid complicity and Elyza really liked Alicia’s stepbrother. He was a good person, always protecting the others. It’s very unfair that the disease took him – not that it should have killed anyone else. It’s just hard to think that a young man like him was now gone.

 

“Rest in peace, Chris.”

 

Alicia feels a shiver going from her head to her toes at Elyza’s words. No one had wanted to say them, what everyone used to tell to someone who just passed away or at a funeral, just before the outbreak. She feels tears escaping her eyes and she didn’t bother wipe them off, because she is touched, as always, by the blonde’s gesture.

 

Travis lets out a shaky breath when Madison slides her hand into his and tugs slightly. They all understand why he doesn’t want to leave this farm. “Come on, Travis. Let’s go.” She tells him and he eventually nods and start walking towards the cars.

 

They all make their way to the vehicles. As usual, Travis and Madison are together in one, Ofelia and her father in the other. Elyza gives her a cornered smile before opening the door and sitting in the backseat.

 

The brunette takes a deep breath and glances to her mother, who is looking at her with a frown. “Can I stay with Elyza?” Alicia asks reluctantly.

 

“Why?” She demands.

 

Alicia shrugs and gives her a small smile, trying to persuade her. “Being with her… it helps.” Madison seems like she is about to refuse, but she nods, knowing that her daughter is speaking about their whole situation; dealing with the disease and Chris’s death.

 

She opens the door and mouths a “thank you” to her mother, sitting in the backseat.

 

In the car, Ofelia and Daniel are not really paying attention to them and it very feels like a relief. Alicia slides her hand into Elyza’s. They look at their intertwined fingers with a smile until the brunette asks: “Why did you leave an apple?”

 

Elyza lets out a sigh. “I ran out of candies.” She sees Alicia rolling her eyes at her. “Do you believe in reincarnation?”

 

It’s a question that takes Alicia by surprise. “Uh, I don’t know…”

 

“Well, I do – sort of.” She gives the brunette a smile and starts her explanation. “I hope that there’s a better world somewhere. A lot of people believed that the soul can reincarnate in something else, like an animal or a plant.” She takes a brief pause to slide her tongue on her lips. “I believe that offering something helps the passage to this other world. I want them to remember the good things in this life, if they can.”

 

“That’s actually very sweet of you.”

 

“You think?” Elyza gives her a genuine smile and look into her eyes.

 

Alicia nods. “Yeah.” She smiles back at the blonde.

 

They turn their head to look at Ofelia and Daniel in the front seats. He is paying attention to the road while she is murmuring the lyrics of the song playing. The moment when Elyza turns her head, she feels the brunette’s lips crashing on her and all she can think is _relief_. She turns her head for a better angle and slides her hand behind Alicia’s neck, deepening the kiss before pulling back.

 

None of them see the small smile on Ofelia’s lips in the side view mirror.  

 

 


	17. Chapter 17

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Trigger warning: suicide mention.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yay! This chapter is 4.4k of interaction between Alicia, Nick, Ofelia and Elyza. Not necessarily together or in this order. Also, Ofelia is a sweetheart that needs to be protected at all cost. 
> 
> You guys may like the end, I don't know... tell me about that, okay??

Chris’s death certainly pushed them to be more careful with walkers, avoiding as much physical contact with them as they could. They didn’t want anyone to suffer from the same fate as him, even though they didn’t know what kind of disease it was and how it was transmitted. When they finally settled in a house, the same day they decided to leave the farm and Chris behind, Travis told them what happened to his son.

 

Everyone was shocked to know that Chris turned into a walker. They thought that it was impossible to turn without a bite, but now it was a whole other level of fear they had to deal with. They didn’t know if he turned only because he had been sick with the mysterious disease or if it was something in the air – which was very possible, because most of the human population turned into walkers in less than a month. If the disease was Chris’s cause of death and the reason why he turned, it would mean that Madison, Ofelia and Elyza were also infected and at risk. If it was because of the air, they were all infected.

 

Elyza and Alicia don’t have much time to focus on what is growing between them; Madison is forcing them to sleep in separate beds. Sure, they can ride in the same car, but they feel like Alicia’s mother is always there to watch them and it’s getting really annoying them that they can’t spend time alone with each other.

 

It has been five days since they decided to leave the farm house. Five days since they left Chris behind them. It has been very hard for Travis to concentrate now doesn’t get a lot of sleep. He prefers to sleep in daytime, when Madison is driving. Alicia thinks he doesn’t want to sleep during nighttime because he’s afraid of getting nightmares or that something will happen to them. She feels sorry for him.

 

They killed a bunch of walkers on their way, when they were ransacking the houses for supplies. Alicia thinks that it gets easier with time, to kill an undead person, especially when they don’t know them.

 

The worst part of breaking into abandoned houses is that they never know what they’re about to find inside. It could be walkers, a stray dog, anything really. One day, they enter a house after making noise to draw the walkers towards them, if there was any. After a moment, they decide to go inside and clear the rooms. They were supposed to stay in this house for the night, because the sun was about to settle down. Elyza searched was the one to search the last room and what she found out, after pushing the door open, horrified her.

 

Ofelia, who was right behind the blonde, let out a cry of both horror and surprise. There was an entire family in that room, but they were all dead. As soon as the door was open, the smell was unbearable and they had to get out of the room: none of them could sleep with the knowledge that someone killed all the members of their family and then committed suicide. It was too much for Elyza and Alicia’s group. They didn’t even take the weapon; it was soaked with blood.

 

They finally find an abandoned house without walkers or anything else inside. It’s great, because they’re all getting tired of sitting in the car all day and listening to the same music for hours. They need to have a break – and possibly look around for more CDs.

 

Ofelia figured out that Alicia and Elyza were together when they left the farm house: she glanced in their direction and found them kissing, briefly, in the backseat. Her father wasn’t paying much attention to them, since he was looking in front of him, but she did. She had to admit that it wasn’t surprising her at all, since those two had spent a lot of time together since the blonde became a member of their group.

 

When she first told Alicia that she knew about her and Elyza, the other brunette was a mess and couldn’t align more than four words.

 

“So, you and Elyza, uh?” Ofelia gives her a cocky smile.

 

“Uh… What are you…?”

 

“Talking about?” She finishes for her. “I mean, it’s getting obvious you two.”

 

Alicia doesn’t want to deny it, but she’s very startled by the question. She wasn’t expecting Ofelia to ask anything about her and Elyza. “We… I don’t know.” She lets out a sigh. “It’s complicated. How did you…?”

 

“You guys were, like, constantly cuddling on the boat.” She answers with a grin. “You acted like she was annoying you, but you were always staying up late with her. I knew there was something when you stayed with her to smoke weed.” Alicia clenches her jaw and looks up at Ofelia, about to argue. “Oh, come on, don’t try to fool me, I know you tried it.”

 

“… I did.”

 

“It’s not like I’m going to sell you out to your Mom.” Ofelia pats her shoulder. “So, you really like her?”

 

“Yeah.” She can’t help but smile a little. They’re sitting on the couch, everyone is asleep, in their rooms. It’s Ofelia’s turn to be on watch and Alicia proposed to give her a little bit of company, since she couldn’t sleep. It’s not like sharing a bed with Nick is something fun. “It’s just… my Mom. I think that she can’t stand that her daughter have _something_ with a girl.” Alicia and Elyza still haven’t defined their relationship, but they were getting there. They just needed more time, but all they know is that there are feelings involved.

 

“She’ll get around the idea.” Ofelia smiles to the other brunette reassuringly. “She understands a lot of things, you know. She told me that she left you and Nick to find him medication, right after his accident, even if she knew it was dangerous.”

 

“I guess I’m just afraid that… being with Elyza changes the way she sees me.” She swallows nervously. “I’m just the same person, you know? Who I like, it’s not supposed to matter, not if I’m happy.”

 

Ofelia nods. “I’m very happy that you found her.”

 

“Actually, she was the one to find me.” Alicia cracks a smile and blushes a little.

 

“Oh, come on, you know what I’m saying.” The older brunette retorts, nudging her.

 

They smile at each other. Alicia really hopes that Madison will come around to the idea that she has romantic feelings for Elyza.

 

There is a long silence before Alicia speaks. “Can I ask you something personal?”

 

“Go ahead.”

 

“How are you holding up, after Andrew?” Alicia did not know a lot about Ofelia and him, just that they were seeing each other when the California Army National Guard secured the perimeter of the Clark’s quarter. She knew something happened after Daniel discovered his daughter’s secret relationship with the corporal, but she didn’t know what. All she knows is that Andrew shot Ofelia, a dim revenge against her father. Hopefully, she survived. After Alicia doesn’t know what happened after Travis beat the hell out of Andrew; if he didn’t succumb to his injuries, the 2,000 walkers that Daniel released from the stadium probably got him.

 

“The wound is completely healed and…”

 

Alicia stares at her friend. “I wasn’t talking about your injury.”

 

Ofelia takes a deep breath. “We weren’t very serious… because he knew his superiors were up to something and that it was a bad thing.” She pauses, adverting her gaze. “When my father found out about us, he tortured him.”

 

The younger brunette starts to understand more things. “When we were in the hospital to find Nick, he wanted to get a revenge with your father?”

 

“Yes, he probably wanted to kill my father, but thought it would be better to shoot me instead… because killing my father wouldn’t have been enough, he wanted him to suffer.” Ofelia swallows with difficulty. “I feel betrayed.” Alicia nods. “But, I… I understand why he did that. My father didn’t have to torture him to get information about the hospital.”

 

“You think you could’ve got the info?” Alicia asks, looking in Ofelia’s eyes.

 

“Yeah. Andy was a sweet man… he wouldn’t have tried to kill me if my father didn’t torture him.” She bites her lower lip. “I think he would have been a good addition to our group.”

 

“I don’t think Daniel would have wanted him to stick with us.” She pauses for a few seconds. “But I agree with you.”

 

* * *

 

Nick seems to remain oblivious to his sister and Elyza’s relationship. He doesn’t ask anything about the reason why their mother wants Alicia to sleep in the same bed than him, he doesn’t understand why there is an unresolvable tension between those two. Alicia thinks he doesn’t want to be involved in a conflict or maybe he is just really unaware of the things happening around him.

 

He had always being supportive in all aspects of her life and she thinks that speaking to him would be good for her. She feels like she needs to talk about it, but she doesn’t really want to talk to Madison about Elyza. Let’s just say they’re not on really good terms after how Alicia’s mother discovered it. She didn’t want to bother Travis with her relationship with the blonde, because he just lost his son and it wasn’t really a good time for him. Alicia didn’t see why she would talk about this to Daniel, since she doesn’t really consider the Salvadoran man as family or friend. He’s just another group member. And she already talked about it to Ofelia.

 

After Daniel comes to replace Ofelia, around 2 a.m., Alicia does back to her room. Nick is already sleeping and she figures that she could still try and talk to him in the morning, because she is also exhausted.

 

They wake up around the same time in the morning, Nick being the first up. He groaned when the rays of sunlight hit his face and muttered something that was incomprehensible to Alicia. He’s out of the room a minute after and the brunette rolls on her back, looking at the ceiling. She wonders if Elyza is awake already. Probably. This girl is an early riser and Alicia thinks that she’s kind of crazy – but hey, living on her own for months in a world does that to you.

 

Nick walks up in the room after using the bathroom and opens the drawer to find something to wear. He doesn’t really pay attention to her and it bothers Alicia a little; they used to be closer than that. Maybe it was just him coping with Chris’s death. It was true that they grew closer after the outbreak.

 

“Hey, Nick?” She asks him, still looking at the ceiling.

 

“Yeah, what’s up?”

 

He takes a t-shirt out of the drawer to examine it, seeing if it fits on him; it seems a little bit large for him, but Nick doesn’t seem to care about that. He throws it on the bed and looks at Alicia, waiting for her answer.

 

“Have you talked with Mom recently?” She sits up in the bed to look at him.

 

He quirks his eyebrows questioningly and removes the t-shirt he slept in. “Not really…” Alicia’s eyes glances at Nick’s arms, seeing the permanent bruises he has on his skin; one of the downside of injecting himself drugs. It’s something that the brunette hates to see on him. The second he sees her eyes trailing on his skin, he pinches his lips together and puts the new shirt on, covering the bruises. “Why do you ask?”

 

She lets out a sigh and bites her lips. “I don’t know, I thought that, maybe, she would have talked to you about me…”

 

He gives her a smirk. “What did you do, Lysha?”

 

She winces at his words. She knows that their mother had always been on Nick’s back because of his behaviour and drugs. Alicia had never been in trouble before, because she had perfect grades and did what she had to do in the house without complaining. Madison had no reasons to be on her back, not until now.

 

“I didn’t do anything.” She tells him.

 

“Then, why do you think that she talked to me about you?” He counters, sitting on the couch.

 

“I, uh…” She tries to find the right words. “Okay, promise you won’t judge me?”

 

“Come on sis, you know me better than that.”

 

“Elyza and I, we… we’re close to each other, you know?” She grimaces and shakes her head, because it seems like there are no right words to tell him about this. “And Mom, she… doesn’t really like that.”

 

He looks at her suspiciously, trying to process what she was telling him. “You and Elyza are close?” Alicia nods and something clicks in her brother’s head. “Is that why you and Mom were fighting?”

 

“Yeah…”

 

“Because you’re close to her?”

 

“Yup.”

 

“How close?”

 

Alicia blushes and averts her gaze. “I… really like her.”

“Oh.” He gives her a smile. “Like her, like… _like_ her?” She nods again and Nick continues: “I never thought that _you_ would be into girls.”

 

“Nick, it’s not about girls, it’s about _her_.” She lets out a sigh. “Mom doesn’t like that I’m with her and that’s why she doesn’t want me near her.”

 

“Woah, that’s… rough. I mean, with all this shit going on around us, she should leave you two alone.” He puts a hand on his sister’s shoulder reassuringly. “We have more important matters than this.”

 

“So, what you’re saying is…?”

 

He looks at Alicia, who bites her lips nervously. “Well, I don’t care who you are with, as long as you’re happy, Lysha.”

 

“Really?”

 

“Yeah, I mean, she’s kind of a badass and saved your ass multiple times… so I don’t really understand why Mom is overreacting about all of this.”

 

Alicia shrugs and lets out a relieved sigh. “She said that I shouldn’t get attached to her, because either of us could get hurt or killed.”

 

“And I believe that you didn’t take it well?”

 

She scoffs. “I asked her if she would split with Travis and she told me that it’s a different thing.”

 

“No, it’s not.” He answers. “You can be with whoever you want to be and it doesn’t have anything to do with the shithole world we live in. It’s not right to treat you like that, you deserve better than that.”

 

“Thanks, Nick.”

 

“Hey, sis?” She hums, looking at him. “I love you. I just want you to know that.”

 

“I love you too.”

 

* * *

 

The next time Elyza and Alicia are completely alone, they’re in the garage of the next house they decide to stay in for the night. Their research had been unsuccessful; they didn’t find any place that looked safe enough. The group still needs to continue looking around.

 

Ofelia is a real sweetheart, because she’s the one that arranged this secret meeting in the garage, because Elyza was complaining about missing Alicia. She waited for Madison to be in the shower to tell Alicia to wait in the garage. Nick is also in the coup. Well, he doesn’t have the choice to be involved or not, because he’s Alicia’s brother and he’ll freak out if she doesn’t come back to bed. He might thought that something happened to her and wake up Madison and they don’t want this to happen.

 

Once Alicia’s mother was out of the shower, Ofelia told her that her daughter was already in bed and that she and Elyza were tired too. She seems to buy it and they make their way to their bedrooms.

 

Since Madison is supposed to be on watch until midnight, they’ll have to be really careful to not raise suspicions and that means that Elyza can’t walk around in the house without being noticed. “I’ll have to _what_?!” She asks Ofelia once they’re in their bedroom.

 

“You’ll have to get outside by the window.” She tells the blonde with a smirk on her lips. “You’ve jumped from higher, come on.”

 

“That’s not the point, it’s _dark_ and _dangerous_ outside.” Elyza growls in frustration.

 

Ofelia stares at her and crosses her arms on her chest. “Do you want to be alone with Alicia? Because I already told her that you wanted to meet her.”

 

Sneaky Ofelia. “Yes, I want to… but what if Madison and Travis decide to go in the garage?” She asks the older brunette, pinching her lips together.

 

“Why would they go in the garage?”

 

“I don’t know!”

 

“Stop worrying about them, they won’t go in the garage without a reason.” Ofelia tries to reassure her friend. “You should go, your _lover_ is waiting for you.”

 

“Fine, fine.” She takes out her knife and points it towards the Salvadoran woman. “If we get caught, I’ll blame this on you.”

 

She chuckles at Elyza’s harmless threat. “Come on, just get out already.” She says teasingly.

 

The blonde groans in disapproval and opens the window, leaning to look in the darkness. She listens closely. No groans, just normal animals sounds and the wind. It seems all clear, so Elyza puts a foot on the frame. She gazes at Ofelia and offers her a small smile. “Hey, thank you O.”

 

Ofelia nods and Elyza climbs out the window – a thing she got used to do recently. She hurries up to move in the darkness, hating that she didn’t have a flashlight. But that would have alerted Madison and Travis for sure. She had to make it to the garage backdoor without any light. That’s just reckless and dangerous, but Elyza can’t wait to be finally alone with Alicia, so it’s totally worth the risk.

 

Thankfully, there isn’t any walkers around when she pushes the backdoor open. She has a victorious smile on her lips when she sees Alicia leaning against a truck, looking at her.

 

“It took you a while.” She teases, starting to walk in the blonde’s direction.

 

Elyza rolls her eyes at her and gets closer. “Well, I’m sorry. I was the one that had to walk outside in the dark just to see a pretty girl, so…”

 

“That is one lucky pretty girl, I can tell you.” Alicia wraps her arms around Elyza’s neck, gazing into her blue eyes. It was still very dark in the garage, but the brunette had lit a candle so they would see where they walked. It made the ambiance very intimate.

 

The blonde licks her lips and nods. “Yeah, now I wonder… where is she?”

 

“I don’t know.”

 

Alicia leans in, gently pressing her lips against the blonde’s. When she is about to pull back, Elyza puts one of her hand behind her head to stop her, moving closer to deepen the kiss, which makes the brunette hums in contentment. Elyza’s free hand moves to Alicia’s hips, thumb brushing over her jeans.

 

When Elyza finally pulls back, a smile of satisfaction on her lips, Alicia looks at her in awe. “I missed being with you.”

 

“It’s not like we never see each other…” The blonde says.

 

“We do, but never alone. I missed that.” She explains, pressing her forehead against Elyza’s.

 

“I missed you too.” She gives a quick peck on the brunette’s lips. “We have to thank Ofelia for planning this for us.”

 

Ofelia was really invested in their relationship, apparently.

 

“Yeah, we do.” Alicia agrees, brushing her nose against the blonde’s and smiling, looking up in her ocean blue eyes. They stay silent for a moment, gazing into each other’s eyes. It feels so good to not have to worry about anything else other than them for a moment. Alicia can’t thank Ofelia enough for that sweet gesture.

 

Elyza brushes her lips against hers, but pulls back when the brunette leans, just before she can preass their lips together. It annoys Alicia a little, because she is denied to have what she wants, but she sees the spark of amusement in Elyza’s eyes and can’t help but smile. She was being teased.

 

She refrains herself from rolling her eyes; she doesn’t like to be teased. She leans in again, but this time aims for the blonde’s perfect jawline to pepper kisses, moving up until she has her earlobe between her lips, sucking gently. Alicia can almost hear the moment when Elyza’s hearts stops beating.

 

Elyza opens her mouth to let a long sigh out; Alicia’s lips feel so good on her. She closes her eyes, appreciating when the brunette moves her mouth on her neck, gently sucking her skin. She hums and takes a step forward, then another, pushing Alicia back against the truck with a cocky grin on her lips.

 

“Your mother is going to kill me if she finds us.” Elyza says, letting out a small chuckle.

 

Alicia leaves her neck alone and bites her bottom lip, looking at the blonde. “Let’s not think about that, okay?”

 

She nods and captures Alicia’s lips again, this time with more intensity. Elyza puts her hands on both sides of the brunette, on the car, trapping her body between her and the vehicle. Any worries she has about Madison finding them secretly meeting in the garage behind her back evaporates. She wants to enjoy the little time she can have with Alicia.

 

Elyza feels the brunette’s arms loosening around her neck and her hands cupping her face. It’s delicate and this simple touch drives her crazy. Alicia tilts her head, letting the blonde’s tongue meet hers. They fight for dominance and Elyza presses her mouth harder against hers, kissing roughly, drawing a soft moan from Alicia.

 

Letting go of the Australian woman’s face, the brunette grabs her t-shirt and brings her hands into fists. Her heart is beating a mile per hour in her chest and she can feel the heat irradiating between their bodies. She takes Elyza’s bottom lip between her teeth and nips on it, then gently soothes by sucking on it.

 

Elyza loses her mind and presses their hips together, slipping her leg between Alicia’s thighs. She can’t get enough of feeling the brunette’s body against her own.

 

Alicia pulls back and looks down at the blonde’s swollen lips with a smile. “Wanna get in the truck?” She asks breathlessly.

 

She nods her approval and Alicia pushes her back gently, moving to open the door of the vehicle. When it’s open, Elyza smiles and presses her front against the brunette’s back, that immediately stops moving when she feels her arm against her middle. She hugs her tightly and presses her forehead against the back of Alicia’s head.

 

“I just want you to know… I’m very happy have you, Alicia.” She confesses. Elyza presses a kiss in her hair and smiles, letting her go.

 

The blonde’s declaration warms her heart. There was no denial; they care about each other a lot. But hearing those words, it’s something else and its feels more real to Alicia. “I don’t know what I would do without you.” She tells back, but preferring not to think about what she would to without Elyza.

 

She gets in the truck, crawling in the backseat rapidly. Elyza gets in the front seat because this way is easier to close the door. She does it slowly and carefully; it’s a garage, she doesn’t want Madison and Travis getting suspicious that there’s someone or something in the garage. When the door is closed, she has to get to the backseat and Alicia by passing over the console, making sure not to hit the steering wheel and the horn. That would be a really bad thing, not only for the adults in the house, but also for the walkers around; the sound would echo in the garage and everyone nearby would hear.

 

She gets to the backseat with a little bit of difficulty; not because there’s not much place between the two front seats, but because Alicia takes pleasure in kissing her with fervor. It’s a little bit distracting and Elyza almost trips on the brunette.

 

When she’s finally on the backseat, she climbs on Alicia’s lap with a mischievous smile on her lips, while Alicia looks at her innocently. They get back at kissing each other and the brunette’s hands finds Elyza’s thighs, scraping her nails on the fabric of her jeans, making the blonde shiver from head to toes.

 

“Should I pick up where we left off last time?” Elyza asks, burying her face in Alicia’s neck, latching her lips on her skin.

 

Alicia bites her lower lip and feels arousal pooling in her lower stomach. “Yes…” She feels Elyza’s hand brush slowly on one of her breast immediately after her answer. “Fuck, Elyza.” Her hips moves against the blonde’s without her own accord.

 

“You can touch me too, if you want.” Elyza tells her timidly, brushing her lips against her earlobe again. The brunette doesn’t need to be told twice; she moves her hands to Elyza’s ass, appreciating by gripping it firmly. She knows that her action is appreciated when the blonde grinds her hips against her too.

 

Elyza pulls back to look at her, eyes filled with lust and parted lips. It’s the sexiest thing Alicia ever witnessed in her life.

 

That is, until the blonde grabs the hem of her t-shirt and removes it, tossing it on the seat. She is speechless, eyes darting down on the black lacy bra Elyza is wearing. It contrasts with her pale skin and Alicia thinks that it’s really beautiful on her. But who the fuck wears lacy bras in a post-apocalyptic world? It’s almost too good to be true. Alicia can’t compete against Elyza’s beauty with her simple old beige bra.

 

The blonde steals a long kisses before looking at her again. “Am I going too fast?” She asks, worried.

 

Alicia, even if she wants this probably ask much as Elyza does, has to be honest with her. “Yeah, a little.” She pauses, looking down at the blonde’s chest. “I just... it’s not like I don’t want you, I really do… and I don’t feel pressured to do anything I don’t want to do.” Elyza passes a hand in her hair, waiting for her to continue. “I just want to take my time exploring you. And I want you to reciprocate too.”

 

The blonde smiles and press a kiss on Alicia’s forehead. “Alicia, we can go at your pace. There’s nothing pushing us to fasten things up.”

 

“You’re perfect.

 

“Of course I am.”


	18. Chapter 18

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There was no update yesterday because I was sick... I still am, but I can't just lay in my bed and do nothing, it doesn't work for me.
> 
> WARNING!: I feel the need to warn everyone... you will dislike a part of this chapter, because there is a mention of non-consent/rape. I didn't go in full descriptions, because I care about my readers and understand that it could trigger bad memories for some of you. It's not what I want. If you guys want to have the story without this part, I will gladly send it to you. You just have to ask, here or on my Tumblr (thesilversouls)

Now that she is allowed a moment to be alone with Alicia, Elyza doesn’t want to close her eyes. She doesn’t know when she will enjoy this intimacy between them again, because she doubts there will be more occasions like this one. She wishes that Ofelia gets tired more often about her complaining about missing the brunette.

 

She closed her eyes only for a few hours, but that was all she really needed. After the outbreak, she has gotten used to this sleep schedule and she’s grateful because she can watch Alicia sleeps peacefully, head on her shoulder. The brunette has messy hair, but Elyza thinks that she is beautiful. She would gladly wake up every morning before her just to watch her sleep, even if this means to be faced with Madison’s wrath just after.

 

Elyza runs a hand through the messy hair, carefully undoing knots that had formed in it. Alicia doesn’t stir, but a small smile spreads across her lips, showing that she was aware that the blonde is playing with her hair.

 

She listens to the brunette’s soft sighs and respiration; it’s a melody in her ears. Elyza remembers the times when she did the same thing with Fiona, when they were sharing a bed – which did not happen a lot, because Fiona had moved to another country. It was different, being with Alicia, for a few reasons. There was mutual attraction and feelings involved, which was not the case with Elyza’s dead best friend. She didn’t have to hide her feelings, even though they didn’t really had a conversation of that _thing_ between them. They didn’t need it, nor did they need to clarify the nature of their relationship. Elyza didn’t care if they didn’t call each other girlfriends. What she judges important is to know that Alicia wants something with her and didn’t feel pushed.

 

They always had honest conversations about their feelings, which was a necessary aspect according to both of them. Without honesty, they would probably still remained oblivious to their feelings – Elyza was grateful that Alicia made her understand her jealous behaviour, otherwise she wouldn’t even have acknowledged having romantic feelings for her friend.

 

Alicia stirs, her body leaning more against Elyza’s. She is too comfortable, even in her sitting position, to fully wake up. She likes to feel the blonde’s body heat and natural perfume enveloping her. She hadn’t realised until then how she missed sleeping against her. Hands are working in her hair and she blesses the world for giving her Elyza Lex – because everything is not only bad in this world.

 

She doesn’t understand why her mother is against Elyza and her being together; they always give each other strength to continue fighting the undead and to wake up every morning. Alicia thinks that this is a very good thing, not to mention that the blonde taught her how to use guns and defend herself. Madison has Travis, why the hell couldn’t Alicia have Elyza?

 

Elyza turns her head slightly to press her lips against the brunette’s warm cheek. She starts peppering soft kisses, lowering her head to gently brush her lips against her perfect jawline, then to her neck. She hears Alicia’s breathing hitch when she press her mouth against her pulse point.

 

It sends shivers down the brunette’s spine and she opens an eye to look at Elyza. It’s definitely the best way someone waken her up in a long time – let’s not remember the time when a horde of walker entered their house, courtesy of Nick, and they had all been woken up because of Elyza’s gunshot. Alicia bites her lower lip when she feels the blonde’s hand grabbing her waist and pulling her closer.

 

“Good morning, sweet cheeks.” She mumbles against Alicia throat.

 

“Hey.” She breathes out, stretching a little. “We should get back inside before my Mom finds out.”

 

Both of them would prefer staying together a little more, lounging in the car, but Alicia is right: they need to get back in the house. The sun is not up yet, but Elyza knows that Madison and Travis would wake up soon if they were not already.

 

“I’d prefer staying with you.” Elyza complains, tightening her grip around Alicia’s waist.

 

The brunette lets out a sigh. “I know.” They look into each other’s eyes for a moment before leaning in to exchange a long and delicate kiss, not bothered about morning bad breath at all. Knowing that they have limited time together, Alicia pulls back reluctantly. “We need to go, come on.”

 

Elyza pouts in displeasure. “Okay.”

 

They get out of the truck, trying to make the least amount of noise possible while closing the door. It’s dark around, the candle went out during the night, so they need to be careful where they put their feet. Pushing the garage door, the young women walk slowly in the hall, listening to hear if anyone was up.

 

Alicia and Elyza immediately freeze when they hear footsteps in the living room. They know that Nick and Ofelia were probably not up yet and they could hear Daniel’s snoring from their position in the hallway. They look at each other: it was either Madison or Travis.

 

Their hearts stop when they hear a familiar clicking sound behind them and a man’s raspy voice. It wasn’t from anyone in their group. “Stop moving or I’m putting a bullet in both your heads.” They obey, not talking the threat lightly. “Good. Keep your mouth shut.”

 

The person in the living room stops moving around and their head pokes out. It’s another man too. A wicked grin spreads across his lips and Alicia scowls. “Look at what you found here.” He says with a low voice. He was a black man, probably in his mid-forties, with a greying dirty beard. He is above six feet tall for sure and he looks very menacing. “You didn’t search the garage, right Greg?” He walks slowly towards them.

 

The man, apparently named Greg, behind Elyza and Alicia lets out a sigh. “No, I was in the kitchen when they got out.” He answers.

 

“Why the fuck aren’t you two with the others?” The black man asks, looking at both of the young women. “Wait, let me guess.” He points his finger in the air, taking another step forward to look at Elyza with an intense look. She clenches her jaw and moves her chin up in defiance. “You two feel alone in this world and… obviously found each other to satisfy certain needs, am I correct?”

 

He moves his hand to toss Elyza’s hair off her neck, revealing a dark hickey on her skin. It was clear that Alicia was the one to make it. Greg lets out a chuckle. “Oh, little naughty girls.”

 

Alicia only wants to puke; these men, these survivors, they were the exact reason why they usually don’t trust people outside their group. They’re mean and show no compassion, preferring to steal and kill without a second thought.  So far, Alicia had only met one other survivor that shown interest in helping her group out; Elyza.

 

“If one of you scream, I’ll make sure to kill everyone upstairs while you watch. Then we’ll take what’s ours, make you suffer, and then kill you too.” The black man says, his wicked grin widening. Alicia can feel the panic building in her chest; she doesn’t want to know what they mean by ‘what’s ours’. She knows too damn well that they’re not only talking about their supplies. “Am I understood?”

 

The brunette can’t help but nod, swallowing with difficulty. The man seems to take pleasure in trying to scare them – and Alicia had to admit that she was really scared. The other members of their group could come downstairs anytime soon and she feared of what would happen then. Those survivors didn’t seem like the ones to make a deal.

 

She hears the floor creaking when Greg moves behind her, getting closer. She brings her hands into fists as he says: “I would recommend you to not do anything stupid either.” Alicia feels the muzzle of the gun on her lower back and a wandering hand on her hip. She feels the man’s calloused fingers slipping underneath the fabric of her jeans and she can’t repress the whimper of fear when he pulls her against him. She knows exactly what they had in mind for her and Elyza.

 

Elyza’s breathe hitches when she feels the black man pressing a knife on her throat – she had been too focused on the man assaulting Alicia. She was really mad, but she didn’t want to do anything stupid and put the brunette’s life in danger. After all, she only had a knife against her throat but Alicia had a gun pressed into her back.

 

The black man lets out a chuckle and looks at Greg. “Do you think we should show em’ what real men are like?” His hand, previously on Elyza’s neck, makes its way down to her cleavage.

 

“Mmm, I like the way you’re thinking, man.” The other answers, pressing his pelvis against Alicia’s back. “Let’s show these lesbos how to take a dick.” Elyza grimaces of revulsion at the stranger’s words. Fucking men.

 

Alicia is on the verge of tears, feeling the man’s hardness against her back. There was no way she would let him do anything to her without a fight; even if this means she gets injured or killed in the process. There was no way she would let someone claim her just like she was an object or a property. She lets out a shaky breath, catching the glance of Elyza in her direction, and she strikes.

 

She elbows him in the throat and grabs Greg’s wrist to control where he’s aiming at. He is startled and lets out a strangled noise, probably because his throat hurts because of the successful coup. “Fucking cunt.” He swears as she sends her fist right on his nose.

 

Elyza takes the opportunity of the men’s surprise to kick the black man in his groin. He shrieks of pain and one of his hands move down to grab himself, the other pressing against the blonde’s throat. It cuts her skin and she hisses, taking a step back before kicking in his chin, sending him flying on the ground, landing on his back with a thump.

 

Travis comes down the stairs running, having heard the noises in the hall – the man shouting in pain and the voices. He his surprised to see two strangers, one lying on his back and the other attacking his stepdaughter. Madison follows him closely and takes a look of what is happening.

 

“Arrrrrhhhhg!!” Greg lets out, when Elyza jumps on him – Travis and Madison wouldn’t have had the time to properly step in to defend Alicia. “I’m gonna kill you!”

 

It’s a threat that she doesn’t take lightly; she hits him on the nose, just like Alicia did, and it breaks under the force. Blood start slipping out and it’s the last thing she sees before his fist collides with her face.

 

* * *

 

Elyza doesn’t know if she wakes up a minute, ten minutes, an hour or a day after getting punched in the face by this stranger guy named Greg. All she knows is, when she wakes up, there’s a pounding in her head and she feels like one of her eye is trying to detach itself from her optic nerve. It’s a strange and incredibly painful sensation.

 

She had been moved on something more comfortable than the floor, perhaps it was a bed or one of the living room couches. She stirs a little and feels a burning sensation on her neck, remembering that the black stranger man had cut her with his knife, just after kicking him in the groin. Elyza mentally thanks her father for dragging her ass to self defense classes, because it served her well against the large opponent.

 

“She’s waking up!” She hears the familiar voice of Alicia.

 

The blonde sighs, the sound visibly discontenting her. “Shhhhh babe, you’re very loud.” She says with a hoarse voice, trying to open her eyes. She one that is trying to detach itself from its socket is to painful to open, but she manages to open the other.

 

“Elyza.” Alicia grabs her hand and seems very relieved. “How are you feeling?”

 

“Like I’ve been somebody’s punching bag.” She groans, trying sit up.

 

A hand presses on her chest, stopping her to move from her laying position. “You _were_ someone’s punching bag. You need to relax.” She moves down to press her lips against Elyza’s.

 

Madison enters the room while the two young women are kissing, but she doesn’t complain or get mad, which Elyza is thankful for. She doesn’t think that she could handle someone yelling at her, because her head was about to explode with all that pounding. “Hey, how do you feel?”

 

“Amazing.” She says in the most platonic voice. “Now, if you excuse me, I really need to pee.” She tries to get up again, but Alicia stops her again. “What the fuck, Lysha?”

 

Instead of the brunette answering, it’s Madison. “You blacked out, I don’t think that getting up right now would be a good idea.”

 

“I feel fine, okay. There’s the very big headache and my eye trying to escape my head, but other than that, I don’t feel like I wanna throw up and I don’t feel dizzy.” She stares at Alicia’s mother with her only unharmed eye. “I’m fine. If there’s anything, I’ll let you know.”

 

“Okay, you can go to the bathroom, but you come back in bed right after, understood?”

 

“Mom!” Alicia complains, eyes darting to her mother.

 

Madison shrugs. “She needs to use the bathroom and she knows better the signs of a concussion than us.” She explains, glancing at her daughter. “We can’t force her to stay into bed.”

 

“Yes we can.”

 

“I believe I can decide what’s good for myself or not.” Elyza points out. “Now, let me go or I’ll make a mess in the bed and no one wants that.” Alicia growls in frustration, but doesn’t answer. She removes her hand off the blonde’s chest, helping her out to move into a sitting position.

 

Elyza feels the pounding in her head even more, but she doesn’t feel dizzy. She believes it’s normal to have such a strong headache after getting hit with such force by a man. She had been lucky that her injuries weren’t that bad.

 

“Do you need help to get to the bathroom?” Madison asks, looking back at the blonde.

 

“I wouldn’t be against that.”

 

Madison and Alicia helps her to get on her feet and support her weight until she finally makes it to the bathroom. After doing her business, Elyza looks at herself in the mirror. It’s a… very horrifying sight. She has a dark black and purple black-eye. No wonder why it feels so painful. Her eyes moves down to her throat, where she sees a bandage around her neck, right where the knife cut her. The bandage was red with blood, but it appeared that it had stopped bleeding. It probably wasn’t a deep and large cut, but this shit still hurts like a bitch.

 

Madison and Alicia help her back to the room and into the bed, after she is done using the bathroom. All of this only took five minutes, but Elyza is glad and won’t complain to lay back on the soft mattress again. She wouldn’t be against sleeping a few more hours.  

 

After a moment, Alicia’s mother looks down at her. “Thank you.”

 

“What for?”

 

“Defending my daughter.” She lets out a sigh, pinching her lips together. “God knows what those men would have done to both of you.”

 

Elyza frowns, wincing at the sudden pain of her injured brow. She didn’t like the thought of Alicia getting touched by those strangers. “I only did what was right, Madison.” She looks at the brunette and asks: “Are you okay?”

 

“Yeah, I’m fine, just a few bruises.”

 

“Good. How long did I blacked out for?”

 

Madison answers. “About two hours. We were lucky that the gun they had wasn’t loaded.” It doesn’t really surprise Elyza, because they must have used it on the walkers. “They had been following us for a few days, I don’t understand how we didn’t notice them.”

 

“But we were careful.” The blonde complains.

 

“We were, but only for the walkers. We didn’t think that other survivors could have seen us while we were on the road.” The older woman says seriously. “We’ve been on the road for weeks, since we left the boat. They could have been spying on us when we were still at the farm house.”

 

“Where are they?” Elyza asks.

 

“We separated them in Nick and Daniel’s room.” She tells her. “Don’t worry, they can’t escape, we used a lot of duct tape on them.”

 

“Did one of you talk to them?”

 

Madison shakes her head and Alicia slides her hand in the blonde’s. At this point, they were not worrying about exposing their relationship under Madison’s nose. Elyza needed the comfort. “No, but Daniel is trying to get information out of them, mostly to know if they’re alone or a part of a larger group.”

 

“He has very good… methods, according to O.” Alicia points out. Ofelia’s father had once tortured his daughter’s boyfriend to get information on the military situation, at the beginning of the outbreak. It worked, because Andrew told him everything Daniel needed to know. This had probably saved all their lives, even if the methods were very cruel. Alicia doesn’t doubt that the men will talk. They just needed to wait for the Salvadoran man to do his magic, even if it is something morally not right about torturing people – but trying to assault young women is right either, so they really deserved to be in pain.

 

Madison agrees. “We’ll stay here for a little while, at least until you get better.”

 

“I can’t leave without beating the hell out of them.” Elyza says, looking at the older blonde woman. “What they tried to do…”

 

“I know, I know… I’m sorry they tried to force you.” She waits a moment before continuing. “If you ever need to talk about that, please know I’m here to listen. I don’t want you to just keep it all in.”

 

“Thanks, Maddie.” She gives her a reassuring smile. “But I’m okay, Alicia reacted before they could do anything.” She brushes her thumb on the skin of the brunette’s hand, gazing at her. “I’m sorry, if I knew his gun wasn’t loaded, I would have reacted sooner…”

 

“Hey, shhhh. It’s not your fault.” She intertwines her fingers with the blonde’s. “You were scared that he’d shoot me if you moved, I get it. I know you would’ve kicked their asses.”

 

“I _did_ kick their asses, but I would’ve done it sooner.” She gives her a smirk, closing her eyes.

 

Alicia shakes her head, not believing that Elyza is still trying to make jokes and tease her after everything that happened. “Let’s not pretend that you don’t have a black-eye and yeah, you did fine.”

 

Madison snorts and it’s the last reaction that Elyza thought that the older woman would have had. Maybe it’s the nervousness finally releasing through amusement: some people thinks it’s easier to deal with such tensed situations by making jokes – that was all Elyza.

 

“You’re _mean_.” The blonde says, pointing Alicia, a pout forming on her lips.

 

“Get some rest.” Madison tells Elyza, cracking a smile.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Long notes, ugh, sorry.
> 
> Reminder that I already have this story planned, for those who asks. We will know more about those two strangers and it's not for nothing that the non-consent scene happened. 
> 
> I want to year your opinion, even if it's critical. I won't judge or be mad, I promise.


	19. Chapter 19

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I need to say a few things to you :)
> 
> 1\. Thanks for the support. For the story. For me being sick and sad over episode 3x09. I know a lot of you wrote me amazing messages and I didn't respond to some of them; this is my thank you. I love reading all your messages and I get excited every time someone starts elaborating on what they like the most. Really, it's flattering. 
> 
> 2\. Over 900 kudos, 100 bookmarks. Woah. Also, 3rd story with the best hits. I don't think that it's all from me, you guys are the one reading it, so thanks again for that. 
> 
> Trigger warning: panic attack. 
> 
> (^ Yes I remembered that you requested a panic attack, Georgia. Hope you'll like it!)

Even with the pounding in her head, Elyza manages to get more sleep the next few hours. She hears some muffled complaints coming from another room, but she figures that Daniel had duct taped the men’s mouth to avoid anyone hearing their screams, which the blonde was very grateful for. She wouldn’t stand a minute without exploding in anger; her head hurt at this point.

 

She wakes up again at the feeling of warm arms wrapping around her middle. She open an eye – the functioning one – so see Alicia looking at her intensely. Elyza understands that she is not particularly pleased with the damage done to her face; the black-eye turned into a darker color. Alicia tries to give her a reassuring smile, but the blonde sees right through her.

 

“It looks more painful than it is.” She lets out, the corners of her lips lifting slightly to offer her a small smile.

 

“It looks very bad.”

 

“I largely prefer having that compared to what they had in mind.” Elyza continues, moving a hand to caress Alicia’s cheek. “Do you want to… talk about it?”

 

The brunette shakes her head negatively. “No, it’s fine.”

 

“It’s not fine, what they tried to do.” She explains, frowning. “The way he touched you… I’m not okay with that. I wouldn’t have been capable of watching him…”

 

“Hey, hey, they _tried_ but they didn’t do _anything_ to us.” Alicia moves closer to press a kiss on Elyza’s forehead. “I know that it’s important to talk about it if we need to, but I don’t feel the need. I know they’re going through hell right now because of Daniel.”

 

The Salvadoran man wouldn’t go easy on them, the two young women were sure about that. Elyza knows that she won’t feel any regret about them being tortured; they deserved to suffer for what they wanted to do. It’s not because it’s the zombie apocalypse that it gives men the right to ‘take what’s theirs’. The blonde knows that she’ll even enjoy them suffer too.

 

“Okay.” She breathes out.

 

“Are you feeling better?” Alicia asks the blonde, looking at her.

 

“The headaches is bearable.” She answers. “Do we have any pain medication? I think that would help a little.”

 

“Yeah, I was waiting for you to wake up again.” Alicia reluctantly pulls away for their cuddling position to get a bottle of water, handing it to the blonde.

 

She uncaps it and drinks a few sips of water. The liquid feels good for her dry throat. The takes the bottle of pills that Alicia hands to her and look at the warnings written on it. “It’s codeine?”

 

“That’s all we have left… it might knock you out.” She explains, grabbing the water bottle to take a sip too.

 

“What time is it?”

 

“It’s 17:30.” She says, looking down at her cellphone.

 

“I should probably wait before taking one.”

 

“You sure? Because you don’t have to endure the pain.”

 

Elyza lets out a sigh. “I won’t be able to sleep if I knock out right now… I’ve slept for most of the day.” She smiles and puts the bottle of pills on the nightstand. “I told you that the pain was bearable. If it starts hurting, I’ll take one and hope that I can get through the night without waking up.”

 

* * *

 

They stay in bed for a while, just appreciating each other’s presence. They can’t hear the muffled complaints from the other rooms. Elyza still hasn’t taken a codeine pill.

 

Someone knocks on the door, forcing Alicia to pull away from Elyza reluctantly. It’s not that she doesn’t want to hide her relationship – apart from Daniel, everyone knows that they got closer – but it’s simply a natural reflex. It doesn’t bother the blonde; she knows that, even though it’s on purpose, Alicia doesn’t mean to pull away.

 

Nick opens the door and his head peaks out, scanning the room to see the girls lying on the bed. “You can come in.” Elyza tells him, offering him a smile. “We don’t bite.”

 

He lets out a chuckle. “I was wondering if you were still asleep.” He enters the room and closes the door behind him. “I brought food, you girls want some?”

 

He is the sweet brother he had always been now. Alicia feels content that Nick thought about bringing them food; she was too preoccupied, knowing that the two strangers were still in the house and that Elyza’s face was submitted to a very hard punch that knocked her out.

 

“Yeah, come sit on the bed with us.” His sister answers with a smile, gently patting the bed.

 

Nick walks across the room and Alicia moves closer to the blonde to give him some place – she won’t deny that it’s also to be closer to her, knowing that it wasn’t something bothering her brother. “I thought soup would be better for you.” He tells Elyza, returning her smile. “But, I also brought cereal and a chocolate bar.”

 

“I’ll start with the chocolate bar.” A smirk spreads across her lips as she grabs it from Nick’s hand gently. “I deserve the dessert first.” Alicia rolls her eyes but doesn’t say anything.

 

“How are you holding up? He bashed your head quite hard.” The older Clark child asks, plunging his hand in the box of cereal.

 

Elyza was getting tired of being asked how she was feeling, but she knows that they feel concerned and worried about her well-being, which is something that she really can’t complain about. It showed her how valuable and respected she was in the group. “I’m feeling a lot better. Sleep helped, I guess.” It was true, because she spent most of the day sleeping or laying around in bed with Alicia. “Thanks for the food, Nick.”

 

She takes a bite of the now unwrapped chocolate bar and he smiles at her. “I figured that you would be starving by now and I wanted to check up on you.”

 

“Your brother is awesome.” She tells Alicia, nudging her in the ribs.

 

Alicia looks at them and smile. She likes that they have some sort of complicity between them. “He’s just trying to get on your good side because he knows you can totally kick his ass.” She retorts, giving a quick glance to Nick.

 

He gives his sister a pout, running his hand through his long hair. He really needs to have a new haircut, she thinks. “Well, you saw how she left the two others before losing consciousness…”

 

The young women look at each other and Elyza asks: “What are we doing with them?”

 

Nick shrugs. “I don’t know, Daniel is trying to make them talk, but… they won’t.” Elyza releases a sighs of annoyance as he continues. “Don’t worry, they can’t do any damage now, we duct taped them to a chair. They can’t even move.”

 

“What do we do if they don’t talk?”

 

Alicia bites her lower lips and says: “We should put them in the middle of the road and let the walkers get them.”

 

Elyza growls. “No, that would be doing them a favor. They need to suffer.” She wasn’t a person that prefers violence, but this had put her on edge; she had been injured and, if the gun they had was loaded, it could have been way worse. The blonde and Alicia had been lucky to only have a few bruises and a cut.

 

“I agree with you on that.” The brunette tells her, leaning to rest her head against her shoulder. Elyza immediately reacts, resting her head against Alicia’s and offering her the last piece of the chocolate bar.

 

Alicia grabs it and shoves it in her mouth. Nick watches them with a smile on his lips, glad that his sister finally found someone to care for her in this way. “I doubt that Travis would let us take care of them.”

 

The blonde pinches her lips together, looking at Alicia’s brother. “They can always try to stop me.” She says with a spark of defiance in her eyes.

 

* * *

 

They wait for the next morning to visit the two men that tried to force and kill them. Alicia is not particularly happy that Elyza is out of bed when she needs to rest, but she doesn’t try to argue with her. She knows that the blonde is angry and wants to make the strangers pay for what they tried to do.

 

Elyza bursts in one of the rooms, eyes immediately finding the man that assaulted Alicia, the one named Greg. He was the priority on her list, because he she couldn’t help but thinking of what he would have done to the brunette and it’s making her very angry.

 

Thankfully, she doesn’t feel dizzy nor has a headache anymore. It’s a good thing because she wants to hear what he has to say, to plead her to not hurt him. She may be a victim in this story, but she sure as hell won’t cry over this. She was stronger than that and Alicia too. They needed to pay and she had an entire night to think about what would make them suffer. She has a list full of ideas, even though she’s sure that Travis wouldn’t let her get to the bottom of it.

 

Greg looks younger than the black man he is with: he looks shorter, with greying long blonde hair and a red beard. He has a lot of tattoos: two half-sleeves and a dark skull on his neck. Elyza starts to wonder if the guy is straight out of prison or out of a tattoo shop. With his behaviour when she met them, she was inclined to think that he was out of prison – yes, she is judging him, but she has the right to, especially after what he put her and Alicia through.

 

Alicia walks behind Elyza and stares coldly at the man taped to the chair. She doesn’t really want to be standing in front of him, but she knew it was better to face him than run away. She lets her eyes gaze down and she sees the trail of blood on his jeans, where Daniel had been cutting him with a razor blade. It looks painful, but he certainly deserves this treatment. The blood looks fresh, meaning that the Salvadoran man was in there just before them.

 

They’re alone with him and there’s a certain tension in the air. Greg’s eyes don’t stop roaming Alicia’s body from the moment she walks into the room and it annoys her a lot. She gives up on maintaining a normal behavior in his presence when the man gives her a _smirk_ , or at least something close to that. He has duct tape on his mouth, preventing him from talking or screaming. It would be a bad thing for them if he started shouting, drawing the walker’s attention to the house. Their group wasn’t really in a town, more like just in a house in the countryside. There probably wasn’t too many walkers in the area, but it was better not to risk anything.

 

Alicia approaches him silently, maintaining his gaze. He keeps smirking at her and Elyza, crosses her arms on her chest, refraining herself from doing anything stupid – like choking the bastard to death. They still needed information that he and his older buddy could provide to their group.

 

The silence is becoming intolerable for the two young women, but Alicia doesn’t know what to say to him and Elyza doesn’t know where to start. The brunette decides to remove the duct tape covering Greg’s mouth, not bothering doing it carefully. The man lets out a growl of pain and licks his lips right after his mouth is free.

 

It takes a moment before one of them speaks. “We sure underestimated you.” Greg says, letting out a cold chuckle. “What are you two doing here, uh?”

 

They needed to face him, but they couldn’t tell that to him – it would make him proud or something. “We thought that it would be a good idea to drag your ass in the middle of the road while you’re still taped to the chair.” Elyza lets out, her gaze still cold. “Let the walkers feast on you, like they should’ve done a long time ago.”

 

“We’re here to talk.” Alicia tells him, ignoring the blonde’s threats.

 

He smirks and lowers his eyes to the brunette’s chest. “Okay, then let’s talk, sweetheart.”

 

Greg’s words makes Elyza want to vomit. Only she gets to call her that, nobody else – okay, maybe Alicia’s family, but everyone gets the point. She lets out a sigh of frustration before taking a step forward. Her fist collides with Greg’s chin and they can all hear his teeth snapping together. “Shut your fucking mouth, mate.”

 

His eyes are now on Elyza and she can see the rage in them. Good. She wanted to make him angry, this way it would be easier to get information out of him. Angry people usually won’t think twice before speaking. “You stupid lesbi–”

 

Elyza interrupts him by sending another punch, but this time on his broken nose. He lets out an angry growl and tries to wiggle free of the duct tape. “Do I have to remind you that you’re duct taped to a chair and that you can’t do _anything_?” She points out, quirking her eyebrows.

 

“When I’m not tied to this fucking chair, you’re going to be the first one I kill.” He spits out.

 

“When? Dude, no offense, but I don’t think that we’ll let you be free, after what you did and tried to do.”

 

Alicia keeps listening to the exchange of words, not knowing if she should say something or interfere. “I should’ve punched your face harder, you little bitch!” He says angrily, staring in the blonde’s eyes. “I should’ve taken your perfect little girlfriend and made you watch!” Elyza clenches her hands into fists, about to send another punch to Greg’s face without even a hint of remorse, when she feels Alicia’s hand on her back, a simple touch to reassure her and ease her temper. “Oh, you listen to her like a good puppy, do you?” He lets out a cold laugh that resonates in the room and continues. “Is that because you don’t want her to see the darkest side of you, blondie?”

 

“Shut up!” Alicia interrupts, stepping closer to the stranger.

 

He glances towards her and smiles creepily. “So you can talk, sweetheart? Tell me, do you like her because she’s the only person willing to satisfy your needs, or this is a real love story?”

 

She knows what he’s doing: trying to get to her on a sentimental level. It’s very pathetic, but this doesn’t surprise Alicia at all. She shakes her head and answers. “Do you really care about that?”

 

“I don’t think a beautiful girl like you should chose pussies over dicks…”

 

That’s enough for Elyza. She can’t continue to listen to this man’s stupid voice anymore. Something inside her wants him dead, right now, and badly. She doesn’t figure out that he’s the one trying to get inside her head, to make her _think_ about her relationship with Alicia. She throws a series of punches in the man’s torso. “You… don’t speak… to her… like that!” She says, in between punches.

 

Greg coughs a few times, letting out the air in his lungs every time Elyza’s fists collide with his chest. It looks painful, but again, he deserves being maltreated like this for what he tried to do to the two teenagers. That’s why Alicia doesn’t stop Elyza from punching him; he deserves it. She may not be able to hurt him physically because it’s not her at all, but she certainly won’t stop someone to do the job in her place.

 

Elyza only stops when Travis enters the room and circles her with his arms, restraining her. “Elyza stop.” He says as she tries to wiggle free from his grip.

 

“You deserve to die, son of a bitch!” She shouts, managing to kick his shin with her boot.

 

The only way Travis finds to stop her from doing anything else stupid is to drag her outside the room. Alicia stays with the stranger for one more second only to put the piece of duct tape back on his mouth. She joins them in the living room shortly after.

 

Travis looks angry and disappointed that she and Elyza entered the room to talk to one of the strangers – and then beat him. Alicia is far from ashamed of their behaviour, because Greg deserved to be mistreated in this way.

 

“Calm down, Elyza.” The tanned man tells her, putting his hands on the blonde’s shoulder. Alicia walks in the room, looking at them, saying nothing but noticing the way Elyza was reacting.

 

She has seen many times Nick react in this way, but it was mostly because of the lack or excess of drugs in his system. She realises that the signs are quite familiar, but there’s only one thing wrong: Elyza isn’t on drugs or, at least, Alicia believes she isn’t.

 

“I’m so… so… sorry.” The blonde says, looking down at her shaking hands. It could’ve been because of the adrenaline rush in her system, but Alicia sees that Elyza has trouble breathing normally and the look of utter panic in her eyes. Travis feels the change in her mood as she stutters, trying to explain herself. “I didn’t… I –” She gulps down with difficulty.

 

“Hey, hey, what’s going on?” Travis asks with a voice meant to be reassuring.

 

Alicia gets closer to the blonde as she croaks out: “My… chest, I feel…”

 

“You’re having a panic attack.” She tells Elyza, who looks at her with a frown, like someone just told her that the Earth suddenly stopped or that you can breathe under water. “You’ve never had one?” Elyza shakes her head negatively and Alicia slips her hands into hers, determined to help her get through this.

 

She lets out a strangled sob and Travis looks at Alicia. “What do I do?” He asks her, definitely not knowing how to help.

 

“Could you, maybe… leave the room?”

 

He nods and takes a few steps towards the hallway. He turns his head a little, but doesn’t face them. “If there’s anything I can do to help, just call me.” He says, before leaving the room.

 

After Travis left them alone, Alicia gently forces the blonde to sit on one of the couch, taking a seat right beside her. She knows that there are many different ways of dealing with a panic attack and that people don’t react the same way at them. It is a tricky situation to deal with one, especially when it’s a first time. She’s nervous and doesn’t want to amplify Elyza’s panic, but it’s not possible for her to do nothing to help.

 

“Elyza, listen to the sound of my voice, okay?” She sees the faint nod and continues. “I’m gonna try something to help you. Give me a sign if it’s not fine and I’ll stop.”

 

“It… hurts…” She croaks, bringing her hands into fists. Alicia could see her knuckles turning white.

 

She doesn’t tell Elyza to try to calm down or take long and deep breaths. Those techniques that they see on TV, Alicia doesn’t believe in them. It’s fake. They generalize panic attacks and try to tell people that it’s easy to control them when, really, sometimes it’s not.

 

The brunette puts her hand on Elyza’s arm softly. “Can you feel this? It’s my hand on your arm.” She sees the blonde’s eyes filled with tears and she continues, trying to remain as calm as possible. “It’s warm, right? Do you know why it’s warm?”

 

Elyza shakes her head negatively, her eyes lowering to Alicia’s lips, as she continues talking. She was listening to her, even with her breathing difficulties. “My hand is warm because I’m safe right now.” Her free hands move to cup her cheek slowly, wiping the tears under the uninjured eyes of the blonde. “You are safe too, Elyza.”

 

Her breath gets a little bit slower, though it’s not enough for her to control it or being less in a state of panic. “You’re still listening to me, are you?” The blonde closes her eyes, parting her lips. Alicia continues: “You’re doing a great job right now, I know you can do this.”

 

Alicia doesn’t think for one second to kiss her; again, it’s a cliché thing coming from movies. Kissing Elyza would probably nothing to encourage her to calm herself – hell, it could backfire and make things even worse. “I’m going to remove your leather jacket.” She tells her, moving her hands to do it. It takes a few seconds, because Elyza doesn’t really cooperate, but she doesn’t give her any noticeable sign to stop.

 

“That’s good, babe.” The blonde’s hands are still trembling, but less than they were and they’re not in fists anymore. “Do you mind if I remove my sweatshirt?”

 

Elyza shakes her head negatively, opening her eyes, and Alicia removes the said sweatshirt. She was only in a black tank top underneath it. She smiles, putting both her hands on Elyza’s shoulders. “That’s great, your breathing is slower. You’re focusing on my voice or on my lips right now, because I can’t figure which one?”

 

The blonde lets out a wet chuckle and Alicia swears that she sees the shadow of a smile on her lips. It’s a step in the right direction. “You’re safe with me.” She repeats another time, moving one of her hands up and sliding it behind her neck to massage it. “Does it feel good, me massaging your neck?”

 

Alicia smiles grows when Elyza puts a hand on her thigh, only to give a weak squeeze. It’s better than nothing. “Perhaps I could massage your shoulders too, if you want?”

 

Elyza doesn’t nod or shake her head, therefore Alicia doesn’t move her hands to her shoulder for a massage. It could have been the blonde’s way to signal that she didn’t want one. “Do you think you can breathe with me now?” Elyza nods and the brunette knows that she is trying to regulate her breathing.

 

“I just want you to know a few things… promise you won’t judge?” The blonde looks up look into Alicia’s green eyes. “You’re an amazing person and I hope you’re not doubting that. I love to see that smirk on your lips when you think you say something funny… and the way you always look so confident, it mesmerizes me.”

 

Elyza takes a deep breath and asks: “Re– really?”

 

“Yes and you are a really beautiful girl too.” Alicia can feel herself start blushing a little. “And I love the way you respect me and protect me, that’s why I feel so safe.” She moves her hand to play with Elyza’s hair. “You’re a true gift and I won’t let anyone hurt you again.”

 

She can feel the blonde getting calmer and calmer at every word she says. It’s good to know that the panic attack is over, because Alicia really hated to see Elyza like this, so… fragile. The brunette knows that she is only human, just like everyone, but it makes her stomach churn only at the thought of Elyza being in pain or sad.

 

“If I could, I would stay in bed with you all day, just cuddling and enjoying being with you.” She looks downs to Elyza’s hand still resting on her thigh, before locking their gazes together. “And your eyes, they’re so beautiful too…”

 

Before her mind can register it, Elyza’s lips are on her own and her eyes flutter shut. It’s a simple kiss and, before Alicia can even return it, the blonde pulls back and presses their foreheads together.

 

Elyza feels like she had been doing a marathon for fifteen hours straight now that she finally regained control of her mind and body. That was, by far, the scariest thing she ever experienced and it seemed like it would never end. Thankfully, Alicia was at her side all this time and helped her, reassuring her and telling the blonde sweet things that she likes about her. Elyza doesn’t think that she would have got through her panic attack without Alicia.

 

“Thank you.” She murmurs to the brunette, who was still gently massaging her neck.

 

“How do you feel now?” Alicia asks her, putting her other hand behind her neck to accentuate her ministrations.

 

“I… I’m really exhausted.” She lets out a long sigh. “I could use a nap, like… now.”

 

“Now is a good time to sleep.” The younger woman says, a smirk creeping at her lips. She remembers the time when she was mad at Elyza for ‘taking a nap’ in the grass, right after a car accident and fighting walkers through the woods. Alicia thought that she was injured or, worse, dead. “Do you want to move to the room?”

 

“No, the couch seems comfortable.”

 

“Okay, but if you have back pain when you wake up, I’ll say that I warned you.”

 

“S’fine.” She slurs moving slightly. “Move your butt, please.”

 

Alicia smiles and pulls back reluctantly. When she’s about to get up, Elyza grabs her wrist to stop her. “What?”

 

“Stay with me.” Elyza says, looking in her eyes.

 

After all the tension with Greg and the panic attack, it was understandable that the blonde didn’t want to stay alone. “Yeah, okay.” Alicia says, moving to the other side of the couch. Elyza lays on her back, resting her head on the brunette’s thighs. “Do you want me to play in your hair?”

 

She is not surprised when she gives her a small nod, closing her eyes. When she starts moving her hands in Elyza’s hair, she barely hears her ask: “Are we gonna talk about the fact that you called me _babe_?”

 

“You called me _babe_ first.” She answers, letting out a chuckle, because she doesn’t know if the blonde heard her, seeming already asleep.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Also, I want to give myself a little challenge... so if there's anyone with request, that might be interesting. I'll consider them if it doesn't change too much the way I want my story to end (and I'm not saying this because it'll end soon). 
> 
> I just want to say: I've never had or watched someone have a panic attack (except on TV) an I tried to describe it the best I can (even did my research!! :D). So, to everyone whave panic attacks, I'm sorry if this can be innacurate. 
> 
> Comments on the chapter?


	20. Chapter 20

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is mostly about Alicia and Elyza, but we can also see a little bit of Daniel's POV. ;)

She fell asleep while playing with Elyza’s soft blonde hair. It was probably due to all the emotions, exhausting her too. Alicia wasn’t against having a little nap. She managed to slump her body, laying on her side, on the couch. She pressed her body against Elyza, spooning her from behind, a contented smile on her lips. The brunette’s hands were tightly wrapped around the blonde’s middle, pulling them even closer. She was feeling very comfortable, even if they were sleeping on the couch; they slept on worse than that.

 

They don’t close their eyes for too long, because everyone, having heard of Elyza’s panic attack, wanted to see how she was holding up. They saw her and Alicia cuddling on the couch and decided to give them more time before waking them up.

 

The members of the group wanted to know what they would do about Greg and his acolyte. Since they were not speaking about anything interesting at all, they didn’t know what to do with them. The real question is: should they let them live? Both men made pretty serious threats towards Alicia and Elyza and they couldn’t take this lightly. Madison was panicking, because letting them live could suggest a threat to the whole group, not only to their youngest members. She feared that Greg and the black man would find them and torture them.

 

Nick woke the two teenagers, still soundly sleeping on the couch. They looked at him with sleepy eyes and he told them to get up and meet the rest of the group in the kitchen to talk. Alicia would have liked to sleep more, but that was all they seemed to do since their fight with the men.

 

They make their way in the kitchen after getting off the couch and stretching. Elyza can feel her horrendous black-eye swelling and hurting a bit. She would have to take those codeine pills that Alicia offered her the previous evening. It could help her. The brunette is the first one to enter the room and she lets go of Elyza’s hands, seeing that her mother was looking at them – it wasn’t a cold glare, but they sensed that Madison was still uncomfortable with them being _something_.

 

Travis follows Madison’s eyes and see the two young women entering the room too. “Hi girls, we were waiting for you to join us.” He welcomes them with a warm smile and continues. “We need to discuss important matters.”

 

Elyza puts a hand in front of her mouth before yawning and says: “Important matters?”

 

“The two strangers duct taped to chairs…?” Nick lets out, glancing at the blonde. “They’re important right now, because we need to decide what we should do with them.”

 

“You all already know what I think about them.” She tells them, her eyes darkening.

 

Ofelia tries to be the reasonable one in the group. “We can’t just kill them like that. They’re survivors just like us.” She sighs, because even she doesn’t believe that Greg and his acolyte deserves to survive. “Our race is on the brink of extinction, we can’t just start killing people.”

 

Alicia looks at her friend and shake her head negatively. “They threatened to kill Elyza.”

 

Travis seems like he has a hard time choosing his opinion. He always had been the gentle man that tried to help people get better, but since he met Daniel and was forced to make serious and hard decisions… his vision on the world changed. The Salvadoran man taught him that he couldn’t save everyone and that the most sympathetic persons were the ones to die first.

 

“We can’t risk letting them live without expecting any consequences. They could come back for us and make us pay for torturing them.” He breathes out. “But we’re also not savages…”

 

“Travis…” Elyza trails out.

 

“Elyza, killing other people… it’s not us.”

 

She clenches her jaw and lowers her gaze. “No, it’s not you.”

 

The blonde swallows with difficulty and leaves the kitchen. Alicia frowns, looking at her stepfather for a few seconds before following Elyza’s trail.

 

Elyza, knowing that Alicia would most likely follow her, doesn’t close the door of their room. She simply just stops in the middle of it, crossing her arms on her chest. When the brunette spins her body to face her, she doesn’t look her in the eyes.

 

Alicia wonders what this is all about. “Hey, talk to me.” She tells the blonde with a soft voice, meant to be reassuring. “What’s going on?”

 

“Greg, when he said that I didn’t want you to see my darkest side…” She pinches her lips together, before continuing. “It’s a little bit true.”

 

The brunette takes a step forward to wrap her arms around Elyza’s neck, pressing herself against her slowly. “Hey, you’ve been out there, alone, for months… I know you’ve been through a lot of horrible things and I don’t care that you did what you had to do, because it made you strong.”

 

“You don’t even know what I had to do…” She trails out, glancing towards Alicia’s eyes.

 

Alicia shrugs. “Do you want to talk about it?”

 

“Not really…”

 

“Well, that’s fine for me.” She places a kiss on Elyza’s lips. “But we need to take decisions as a group… because if one of us starts doing things behind everyone’s back and gets hurt…”

 

“I won’t do anything behind anyone’s back.” The blonde says with confidence. “I promise.”

 

“Okay, then we should get back to the others to continue the discussion.”

 

When Alicia pulls back, Elyza takes her hands in hers. “Wait.” They look into each other’s eyes before the blonde closes the distance between their faces, gently pressing her mouth to Alicia’s. They deepen the kiss, Elyza tilting her head and pushing harder against the brunette’s lips.

 

* * *

 

They don’t really make a decision about what they’ll do about Greg and the black man, after the discussion. Alicia can feel that Elyza is definitely not happy about this and she isn’t either, but they still agreed that they need to make this decision as a group. Travis told them that they’ll think about the next morning and that they should prepare themselves to be ready to leave: they stayed in this house for too long now and they didn’t want to risk anything.

 

In the morning, Alicia wakes up to cold sheets and an empty side of the bed. She hates the sensation creeping in her chest, thinking that, maybe, the blonde decided to ignore Alicia’s pleads to follow the group’s intentions; did Elyza betray her? She pushes the thoughts away, not wanting to jump to conclusions.

 

Alicia puts her pale blue plaid shirt on and gets out of the room, searching for the blonde. She doesn’t find her in the living room or the kitchen and _then_ she starts truly worrying. She hears someone coming downstairs and sees Travis and Nick chatting together. “Have you seen Elyza?”

 

Both of them shakes her head and she bites the insides of her cheeks. She turns to walk directly towards the room where Greg was, hoping that she would find both Elyza and the stranger in it.

 

She panics. There is just a bloodied Greg sitting on his chair, still duct taped to it, He looks up at her with disinterest and she lets out a growl of frustration, moving in the living room to look outside the windows. Their two vehicles were still in the driveway.

 

“Lysha, don’t panic…” She hears Nick’s voice behind her and she freezes.

 

“Where is she?” She lets out a sigh of both frustration and panic. What if Elyza decided to leave, after all this time?

 

“I heard Mom and her talking, earlier this morning.” He tells her, putting a hand on her shoulder. “They may be upstairs.”

 

“They’re not.” Travis says. “I think that they’re in the garage.”

 

Why didn’t she think about this before? Alicia rushes out of the living room, getting in the hallway and opening the garage’s door. It’s dark in there, the only light coming from the window in the garage’s backdoor.

 

She hears a sob and she turns her head, finding her mother’s eyes on her. Madison has Elyza in her arms, her head pressed tightly against her chest. Alicia wonders if it’s another panic attack, but she doesn’t think that Elyza would have woken up her mother before her…

 

“Alicia.” Elyza croaks out.

 

The brunette walks towards the two women and puts a warm hand on Elyza’s back, immediately trying to comfort her. “Hey, what’s going on?” She asks in a soft voice. “Are you alright?”

 

Elyza lets out another sob. Madison answers before the sobbing blonde in her arm does. “She… tried to kill Greg this morning.” She lets out, pinching her lips together.

 

“I couldn’t do… it.”

 

Alicia doesn’t know how she is supposed to feel knowing that Elyza almost betrayed her; should she be mad against her? The brunette pinches her lips together and says: “Come here.” She opens her arms and Elyza lets go of Madison to find comfort in Alicia’s embrace. “I’m glad that you didn’t do it.”

 

“I couldn’t…”

 

“I know, I know… I’m not mad at you, you didn’t do anything wrong.” Alicia continues, moving one of her hands to massage her neck, just like when she had her panic attack the previous day.

 

Madison looks at them with worried eyes. “Elyza, you don’t need to make the harsh decisions… I know that you are very mature for your age and that you’ve been through a lot, but you should let this be on Travis, Daniel and my hands.” She takes a brief pause before continuing. “I don’t want you to suffer from the consequences of something this difficult to decide.”

 

Her mother’s understanding of the situation touches Alicia. It’s another step in the right direction, for Madison to get at ease with the idea that the blonde is now definitely a part of her daughter’s life and theirs.

 

“You’re alright, Elyza.” Alicia tells her.

 

“I’m sorry.” The blonde says, pulling away from Madison’s embrace.

 

* * *

 

Daniel walks inside of the room of the man whose name is still unknown. Looking down at his knife, he thinks about how much he can torture him before he finally talks – not long, he hopes, because he’ll run out soon of ideas of ways to make him endure more pain. He closes the door behind him, whistling the air of an old song he had stuck in his head.

 

He smirks at the black man, still duct taped to his chair. They didn’t give him food or water, so he must be starving after a complete day without eating and that’s a very good thing. People tend to say things when they are getting desperate for something.

 

“Hello, stranger.” He says, looking at him. The man doesn’t answer because there’s a tape on his mouth, but Daniel sees his frown. “Will you finally consider telling us anything interesting? Because, _amigo_ , I’m not going to run out of ideas anytime soon.” The Salvadoran man removes quickly the tape from the man’s mouth and offers him a smile. “Shall we begin?”

 

He hears the growl of frustration. “You’re a sick man.” The stranger tells him, his eyes darkening.

 

“Not as much as you are, believe me.” Daniel continues. “There’s only a few of us now and look at you… you got lucky that the rotters didn’t get–”

 

He is interrupted by the black man surging forward, startling him. He doesn’t know how he managed to get free from the duct tape, but he reprimands himself for not searching him properly. He falls on this back and struggles, trying to get on his feet the fastest way possible. Daniel can’t because the stranger pushes him back, straddling his hips. The Salvadoran man lets out a grunt of pain when a fist collides with his jaw, making his teeth clench together.

 

“You’re gonna regret this, you old man!” The other survivor says angrily, sending another fist to connect with Daniel’s face. He avoids it at the last second and the fists hits the wooden floor, knuckles cracking under the force of the impact. “Fucking shit!”

 

Daniel manages to slip his hand behind his back while trying to avoid any more hit from the man straddling him. He catches the gun that he always put inside of his pants for emergencies and he pulls it out. In the time it takes to remove the pistol’s safety lock, the stranger hits his wrist with full force, sending the weapon flying in the air, landing a few meters from them.

 

“You really thought that it would end nicely, don’t you?”

 

Daniel braces himself for another impact of the man’s fist against his face, but instead he feels the weight on his hips gone. This means only one thing; he’s trying to get to the gun. He swears, getting up the fastest he can, but his head is swirling because of the hits he took and he isn’t fast enough to keep the black man from reaching his goal.

 

He hears his snarky chuckle just before the click of the safety button removed. Daniel grits his teeth together, taking a step forward to attempt knocking the gun before it can be fired.

 

It’s too late. He hears the detonation and then the atrocious pain in his right shoulder. The Salvadoran man lets out a whine of pain and sees his assailant raising the pistol up in the air, aiming for his head. He freezes, thinking that this meant the end.

 

But it’s not. He hears a growl of rage and Nick surges through the door, his body colliding with the black man, who lets go of the firearm. They both fall on the ground. Daniel is relieved that the younger man came to defend him.

 

They exchanges a few punches and Nick ends up back on the ground, in the same position that Daniel and the stranger were just a moment ago. But, this time, what changes is that Nick can get a hold on the weapon.

 

He doesn’t hesitate to use it. He fires one time, two times. He can feel the blood starting to drip on his clothes. “Take this, son of a bitch!” He says as he pushes the black man on the floor.

 

Daniel puts a hand on his shoulder, ignoring the pain, as he looks his assailant losing blood without any remorse. They should’ve killed them the moment they got in the house and tried to force Alicia and Elyza.

 

Nick sends a glance to Daniel. Seeing that he had been shot, he gets up and rushes towards him at the same moment that the others enter the room. Travis takes the gun from Nick’s hands and puts the safety on again, before helping his friend. Ofelia looks down at the black man’s body with a disgusted grimace and does the same as Travis.

 

When Madison, Alicia and Elyza enter the small room, they understand that the stranger found a way to remove the duct tape and attacked Daniel when he found the right moment.

 

The younger blonde looks at the blood on the floor and closes her eyes. “We need to leave right now.” She tells the group, then takes a deep breath. “The gunshots probably alerted the walkers in the area.”

 

Alicia moves to the window and tosses the curtains to look outside. Elyza was right; there were a few walkers coming their way. Even though they didn’t know exactly where they were, they would try to get in the house and their group would be circled soon, without any ways to escape. Any movement drawing their attention would be fatal.

 

“Help Daniel to get out of the house!” Madison tells Travis.

 

Everyone, except from the Salvadoran man, pulls out their knives or other weapons. Elyza is the first one out of the room and Alicia follows closely. They had to take out the walkers coming in their way if they needed to, making a clear path to their vehicles for the rest of the group.

 

Ofelia looks at Madison and Travis while they’re helping Daniel to rush out of the room. “What do we do about the other man?” She asks them, evident panic in her voice.

 

“We don’t have time to think about him!” Nick tells her, pushing her to follow the others.

 

Madison looks back at the injured man’s daughter. “We’ll let the walkers have him.” They all really hope that he would die because of the undead. If he didn’t, the older woman knows that he’ll have a hard time to find them; they’ll have a considerable head start.

 

They’re all out of the house in a matter of seconds. Elyza fights a walker and sticks her hunting knife in its head quickly, pushing the body to the ground before attacking another. Alicia only has to deal with one and Nick helps her just in case. There’s not that many walkers around them, but it still remains a serious threat, especially since one member of their group is hurt.

 

“Get Daniel in the SUV!” She tells Madison and Travis, while kicking a walker in its legs. She crouches to stick the knife in its eye and it immediately stops grumbling. “I’ll take care of him. O, get behind the wheel!” She commands.

 

Everyone gets safely in their vehicles; Madison, Travis and Nick are in the sedan, while the four others are in the SUV. Ofelia is, as instructed, behind the wheel, Alicia on the front passenger’s side. Daniel and Elyza are sitting in the backseat, not bothering to put on their seatbelts.

 

“Alicia, hand me the First-Aid kit that’s in the dash, would you?” The blonde asks her.

 

She doesn’t answer, but she obliges and gives her the First-Aid kit the next second. Daniel lets out a grunt of pain and Elyza takes her knife, cutting his t-shirt without any remorse. She has to get a good look at the wound before anything.

 

“It’s not that bad, you’re lucky.” She tells him reassuringly. “Let me look at your back, I need to see something.” He leans forward as she gets on her knees. Thankfully, the route isn’t bumpy. “Oh, you’re not going to like me, buddy.”

 

He grits his teeth together and glares at her. “What is it?”

 

“The bullet is not out of your shoulder. I’ll have to remove it.” She explains, putting on latex gloves – she didn’t have time to clean her hands to do this. “And we don’t have any painkillers…”

 

“Just do it.” Daniel indicates her.

 

“Okay, just…” She looks at him and gives him a sympathetic smile. “Try not to move, okay?”

 

He nods in agreement and she starts working on him. She takes a deep breath, finding a set of tweezers in the First-Aid kit. Alicia turns her head to look at them silently. Elyza slides the tool in the wound as Daniel tries to stay still to help the blonde. He starts panting and swearing in Spanish that only Ofelia can understand the moment when Elyza starts pulling out the bullet out of his shoulder.

 

When it’s done, she simply throws it to the ground and gathers the tools to do the stiches. “You all good, Daniel? Not going to pass out on me?” She asks him. He grunts but doesn’t answer her. Alicia sees that his face is red and sweaty – the brunette hates it when someone in their group is in pain. She had seen and felt enough in these two last days alone.

 

First, they stumbled on Greg and his acolyte and they were very lucky that Travis and Nick came to their rescue – but before Elyza got smacked down and passed out for two hours. Then they had to deal with the black man getting free of the duct tape and attacking Daniel. After he shot him, Nick fought with him and killed him, then the group fighting walkers and running away from the house, leaving Greg behind for walkers to eat. It was enough emotions for her; she could use a break for a week or even a month. All she wants is to spend time with Elyza.

 

The blonde is done patching up Daniel, who almost faints before she finishes. She picks up a t-shirt from her backpack, ripping it off to put the fabric around the injured man’s shoulder, tightening it to avoid more bleeding.

 

“There, you’re all done.”

 

“Thank you, Elyza.” He tells her, leaning his head back against the seat.

 

“My pleasure.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, I know that this wasn't the best chapter so far, but it's mostly just a filler chapter. Hope you still liked it.


	21. Chapter 21

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Shorter chapter but it's Monday and the end of the term is coming... so yeah. Hope you like it.
> 
> Also... 80k words!!!!! I'm kinda of proud of myself hehe ^^

Once Elyza has taken care of Daniel’s wound, stitching it up, he falls asleep in the backseat, leaning his face on the window. They were all pretty banged up from what happened, all asking themselves how one of their captive men managed to get rid of the duct tape. They can’t help but think that they were very lucky; things could have got a lot worse in that house.

 

The blonde is humming softly the song playing in the CD player. Ofelia has her eyes stitched to the road, only glancing behind to see how her father was holding up. Alicia was trying to find something to do with her hands, because doing nothing was very boring. She reaches for the pocket at the back of her jeans, where she usually puts her phone, and is surprised to find it empty.

 

She looks in the other pockets and does her best not to start panicking; maybe she just put her phone in her backpack without remembering it. The brunette unzips it and shoves her hands inside, desperately trying to find the device. Ofelia sees her and asks: “Trying to find something?”

 

Alicia lets out a grunt before answering. “I can’t find my phone, it’s usually on me, but now I can’t find it.” She clenches her teeth before opening another pocket, where she is sure that she won’t find her phone miraculously. She fears the idea that she lost it in the house or when fighting walkers. She didn’t pay enough attention. “I can’t fucking find it.” She lets out, emptying the content of her backpack at her feet, on the car floor.

 

Elyza, hearing that Alicia couldn’t find her phone, puts a reassuring hand on her shoulder. “Just calm down, we’re going to find it. It probably slipped under the car seat, that’s all.”

 

Alicia really tries to avoid snapping at the blonde, but it slips out. “I can’t _calm down_ Elyza!” She turns her head to look at her, sending her a cold glare for a second, before realizing how she reacted and chewing on her bottom lip.

 

Ofelia gives a look at Elyza in the rear mirror but stays silent. The blonde, surprized by Alicia snapping at her, steps out of her stupor and clenches her jaw. “That was rude.” She lets out on a neutral tone, though it is clear that she was slightly angry at Alicia.

 

“I’m sorry.” The brunette says, feeling tears at the corners of her eyes. She turns her head to look through the window. She can feel the tingling on her cheeks, telling her that she’s blushing – from trying to hold back her tears and because of the shame. “I just…” She tries to explain herself, playing with the hem of her shirt. “I think I lost it.” She murmurs.

 

The two other women knows how much this phone meant for Alicia, because it was containing happy memories – though now they were making her nostalgic – and she didn’t feel capable of letting go of it yet. Now that she was forced too, she was feeling incredibly sad, like a part of herself was missing. She lost the memories of Matt, of her friends, of everything.

 

“It’s fine.” Elyza tells her, though Alicia is not very convinced that the blonde was forgiving her for snapping at her.

 

They had several rough days in a row and the brunette started to miss being on Strand’s ship – it was a nice boat, alright? It was like being on a cruise, even if there was no good food and that the electricity started to suck. Alicia wonders for a second what happened to Victor Strand after their group left him alone in the middle of the ocean. He was probably dead by now; he probably tried to go on a supply run and got bitten or eaten by a walker.

 

There’s a silence between them, the only sound being the song playing at a low volume, until Daniel wakes up in pain and Elyza busies her mind while changing his makeshift bandage.

 

* * *

 

It takes them two more hours before stopping their vehicles and getting out. Travis parks the sedan in the middle of the road and gets out. Everyone needs a break from sitting in the cars and they follow him. He stands between the two cars and looks around for possible threats, until Ofelia walks up to him. “Why are we stopping?” She asks the older man, crossing her arms on her chest. “We should be looking for a house for the night right now, not stop in the middle of the road for everyone to see.”

 

She is not please with Travis’s decision, but he lets out a sigh, beginning to explain himself. “I wanted to know how your father was holding up.” He takes a brief pause before continuing. “And the Sedan is running low on gas, we need to fill up the tank. I’m sure the SUV could use some gas too.”

 

Elyza nods. “Yeah, it’s almost empty.”

 

“There’s a gas station right there, that’s why we stopped.” Madison says, pointing in a direction. Everyone follows it and they see it. “Some of us can get inside to look for food, while the others are filling up the tanks.”

 

Daniel lets out a grunt and walks towards the car, this time at the front passenger’s seat. “I’ll be waiting in the car.” He lets out, before closing the SUV’s door. It bothered no one that the Salvadoran man preferred to stay in the vehicle; he was injured and could put them in a bad situation if he had to fight a walker in the small gas station.

 

Nick sighs and takes out his knife. “I’m going inside… anyone has to use the bathrooms?”

 

“Yeah, I do.” Alicia answers, imitating her brother. “Can I go before you?” Nick nods his agreement.

 

“I’ll cover you.” Elyza tells them, looking at the brunette.

 

“Okay, but hurry up.” Travis indicates them. “Be back in five minutes. If anything goes wrong in there, just shout and we’ll be there in no time.”

 

After everyone agreed to be back in five minutes, the youngest members of the group enter the gas station after knocking on its door. They hear the grunts of a walker, but it seems stuck somewhere and they know they’ll have to find where it is and kill it. Elyza, as usual, takes the lead and enters the store. It’s dark inside the building and it smells of decay and decomposed flesh – an odor they all got used to. It’s not particularly appealing, but they don’t feel the need to throw up every time they smell it.

 

They hear a sound, two metallic things banging together, and Elyza finds the walker chained up on the ground, crawling towards them. Alicia notices that the bones of its leg are broken at several places – probably the reason why the walker is only crawling. It grunts when it sees them and grabs the air.

 

The blonde ends it quickly. Without turning back, she tells Alicia: “Go to the bathroom, we don’t have much time.”

 

She huffs in annoyance at the detachment in Elyza’s voice. She is still definitely mad at her. Instead of retorting anything, she moves towards the end of the room, pushing the bathroom’s door. There’s no windows and it’s dark, so she lets the door open. It’s disgusting and she does her business without even touching the toilet seat, thankful that there’s still paper. She doesn’t bother flush the toilet and gets out of the bathroom, then Nick rushes to enter.

 

Alicia goes back to the store part of the gas station and starts picking up things to shove in her backpack. Not food, more like necessary things; tampons, toothbrushes, toothpaste, paper towel, etc. She looks up to watch Elyza picking things too, behind the counter.

 

“Are you mad at me?” The brunette asks her reluctantly.

 

Elyza shrugs, like it’s not an important matter for her. “Nope…” She sees Alicia rolling her eyes at her and reconsider her answer. “Okay, maybe, but you know, I get it, you lost something important for you…” She takes pause, stabbing a bag of chips with her hunting knife and shoving one chip in her mouth. “… I just, I don’t know, I disappointed, I wasn’t prepared for you snapping at me like that.”

 

Alicia lets out a sigh and walks towards the blonde. “I said I am sorry.” She lowers her gaze and continues to explain herself. “I didn’t want to snap at you, I know you just wanted to reassure me. I won’t do it again.”

 

“You promise?” The younger woman nods and Elyza cracks a smile. “Okay, come here.”

 

She takes another step, pressing her body against the blonde’s. Elyza leans to press a quick kiss on Alicia’s lips, pulling back only when she hears Nick clearing his throat behind them.

 

“Girls, we don’t have time for mushy stuff right now.” He reprimands them. Alicia feels the redness creeping in her cheeks and thanks the store for being dark; Nick would have seize this perfect occasion to tease her. She pulls away from Elyza, giving her a half-smile, then continues to take more supplies.

 

Alicia, after being done taking necessary supplies, starts to take food, water and other beverages. She shoves packages of beef jerky and dried sausages in it – God knows how long she haven’t ate meat for – and she puts a few bottles of Gatorade.

 

“We should look for pain medication.” Elyza tells them.

 

“I’m on it!” Nick says, moving to the part of the store. Alicia mentally slaps herself because she didn’t think for one second to take medication for Daniel and Elyza.

 

A few seconds after, Alicia joins him – the younger sister’s instincts, probably. She looks up at him at the moment he shoves something in his backpack and she frowns. “Nick?” She asks him, pointing down with his chin to mention the backpack. “Tell me what you put in there.”

 

Nick knows too well what kind of medication can get him instantly high and tripping. He knows the dosage too and Alicia doesn’t want to babysit his older brother just in case he decides to take drugs and do something stupid _again_. The memory of the time he brought walkers in that house and she and Elyza had to get inside by the backdoor to rescue Daniel and Ofelia was still much anchored in her mind. She didn’t want to get through something like that again.

 

She waits for him answer, putting bottle of pills in her own bag. “Uh, it’s nothing, Lysha.” He tells her. “Just man stuff, you know?”

 

Alicia doesn’t know where he’s implying by that; she would have understood if he wanted to make supplies for the ladies, because as everyone knows it’s the ladies that have it the hardest, with their monthly bleeding, cramps and everything that goes with it. He would have been a real sweetheart to have a thought for them, just in case of a feminine emergency, but Alicia couldn’t believe that Nick tried to get away with his _man stuff_.

 

“Okay, just give me your bag.” He looks at her, incredulous.

 

“What? No!”

 

She sighs and snatches the backpack from his hands before he can protest or move. Opening it, she shoves her hand inside it and picks up a small black box from it. Looking down, she reads the inscriptions written on it. She had been sure at a hundred percent that it would have been a box of medication.

 

Her jaw drops. “What the fuck, Nick?!”

 

Elyza comes behind Alicia to look over her shoulder. She can’t help but start laughing at Alicia’s face, because it’s perfect. She starts giggling and she glances at Nick, her face turning red because of how fun she thought the situation was. “You…” She puts her hand on her chest to control her laughs. “ _Man stuff_?”

 

Nick’s face turns red from embarrassment as the blonde keeps laughing. Alicia doesn’t know what to say, but she sure is surprised about this. Her brother takes back his backpack and rushes out of the gas station’s store to join the older members of their group.

 

The blonde can barely contain her giggles as she wipes the tears forming in her eyes. “Oh my god, you should’ve seen your face.” Elyza’s body trembles as she bites her lower lip, stopping herself from laughing.

 

“Condoms, really?” Alicia mutters to herself. She really needs to talk with Ofelia about that. 


	22. Chapter 22

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I planned to write a longer chapter, but it's 1 a.m. and... all I have to say is not my fault, it's Georgia's.

After leaving the gas station, Alicia hesitates to speak with Ofelia about… Nick’s man stuff. It’s obvious that whatever’s going on in her brother’s head concerned her one way or another. There aren’t a lot of women in their little group; Madison is his mother, Alicia his sister and there was absolutely no way that the brunette would let him near Elyza. He wouldn’t pick up condoms from a random gas station’s store for no reason. Come on, it’s Nick.

 

She doesn’t know how she feels about this information. She never really pictured her brother with a sex life because she was mostly concerned about his drug addiction. Of course they are closer now, living the apocalypse and fighting the imminent threats such as zombies and strange men with a certain will to kill them and steal their things. Alicia wonders how her brother is holding up with the events of the morning. He did shoot a man and _kill_ him. It was supposed to affect him somehow. She only hopes that he won’t find solace in drugs again and that he would open up a bit to her.

 

Catching Ofelia’s glance in her direction, in the rear mirror, she gives her a small smile before she leans her head on Elyza’s shoulder. Perhaps it’s not a good time to talk to her about Nick picking up the box of condoms in the store. Daniel is in the front seat and god knows how protective this man his with his daughter; if Alicia started to talk about it, Ofelia would not only feel embarrassed, her father would try to chop Nick’s masculinity while he sleeps. It’s better to wait to be in a house, far from the Salvadoran man, to have this conversation.

 

Ofelia mutters something in Spanish under her breath and starts to break. The SUV slows down, just like the Sedan. “There’s a car coming our way.” She says, noticing the vehicle in the middle of the road.

 

Alicia swears she can feel the hesitation that crosses Travis’s face as he puts his car in park. Their last encounter with strangers was a total fiasco, to be honest. The brunette would prefer not to be in anyone’s line of sight if it would mean to end up walker’s dinner, but she still remains curious. What if they are good people and what if they could help them to find a safe place? She wouldn’t be against helping someone either. After all, when they came across Jordan, Amanda, Ben and Anthony, they helped each other and found somewhere to sleep, food to eat and some comfort for a while. They weren’t bad people and Alicia kind of missed their kindness and hospitality.

 

“We shouldn’t stop…” Daniel trails out, looking at the car slowing down, probably because the driver saw their group. “This is a bad idea.”

 

Elyza doesn’t know what to think about meeting another group. It’s dangerous because they could try to steal their things or even kill them. She is usually the optimistic person of them all, even if she knows the risks, but after a man beat her up and tried to kill her, her opinion changed a little. She doesn’t feel like trusting anyone so soon.

 

The other vehicle stops; it’s a large 4x4 black truck. Alicia sees the driver, a Hispanic woman probably in her mid-forties. In the front passenger’s side, there’s a younger black man and she thinks that she sees a dog in the backseat. Yup, definitely a dog.

 

A man jumps from the truck’s tailgate and he makes sure to sweep the area with his gaze before walking towards their Sedan. Elyza definitely starts being nervous when he puts a hand on his gun’s handle. It doesn’t look like he wants to attack them, it feels more like a habit. But still, it’s enough for the blonde to think about the worst outcome of their meeting.

 

Travis gets out of the vehicle, so does Madison and Nick. Alicia is the first one to push the SUV’s door, about to join them, when Elyza puts a hand on hers to stop her. “What are you doing?” She asks the brunette.

  
“I want to listen to them.” She answers, retrieving her hand from under Elyza’s.

 

“You can always listen from here.”

 

The faint attempt to get Alicia inside the car with her is not effective at all. The younger woman just shrugs and gets out of the car. Elyza is left alone when Daniel, even with his shoulder’s injury, decides to join the rest of their group to meet the strangers. She doesn’t want to be considered as a coward, so she slams the door and quickly join them too, staring at the man in front of her.

 

The armed man is taller than Travis and has a swarthy skin. He is bald, except from that small patch of hair from his forehead to the back of his head. They could see his larges biceps and defined muscles even if he has his t-shirt on. If Alicia didn’t have feelings for Elyza, this piece of a man would have surely caught her interest… but now, she just really thinks he looks well-prepared for the apocalypse with those guns.

 

“Uh… Hi.” He says, looking at everyone in their group. He looks very timid for such a beefy guy and every thought Elyza had about them being hostile vanished. “We’re surprised to see other people, we haven’t met anyone for weeks.”

 

“We unfortunately can’t say the same.” Elyza tells him, crossing her arms on her chest. The man glances at her to examine her, his eyes trailing on her black-eyes, bruises and at the makeshift bandage in her neck, where she had been cut by a knife.

 

The swarthy man looks at Travis and offers him a sympathetic smile. “I’m Richard.” He introduces himself, as the other gets out of their truck. “This is Alejandra, Damian and we’ve got Bandit in the backseat.”

 

“Hi Richard.” Travis holds his hand for the man to shake. “I’m Travis. This is Madison, her kids Nick and Alicia.” He takes a pause and turns his head towards the rest of their group. “Daniel, Ofelia and Elyza.”

 

“Glad to meet you guys, though I would have preferred it to be under other circumstances, Travis.” He continues. “I see that some of you are pretty banged up.”

 

Madison nods and puts a hand on her fiancé’s shoulder. “We’ve been through a lot lately.” She wasn’t only referring to the fight they had with Greg and his acolyte, but also with the disease and Chris’s death. It happened about a week ago and everyone in their group missed his presence a lot.

 

“I’m sorry to hear that.” He says, looking down. “We’ve lost a few of us too.” He takes a pause, looking at Madison. “Were you going somewhere?”

 

Elyza would have been reluctant to answer the question, but the older woman isn’t. “Not really, we’re just trying to find a place safe enough to settle.”

 

Daniel lets out a grunt of disapproval and puts a hand over his injury. Travis gives him a glare and addresses to Richard. “We could use a little bit of rest, we’ve been on the road for a while.”

 

Richard gives him a smile. “You could always follow us.” He proposes, joining his hands together in front of him. “We live behind a large fence that we keep solidifying to keep the walkers away. It used to be a military camp; it’s not the most comfortable place to live in… but we have good defenses.”

 

The idea is tempting, but this could be a trap. Alicia looks at her mother and tells her: “We should consider this as an option.”

 

Turning down a proposition from someone that offers them hospitality probably would be a stupid thing to do. They need to discuss about it.

 

Alicia’s stepfather nods. “You’re right, we should talk about it.” He looks at the other group and says: “Would you give us a minute?”

 

“Sure thing. Take your time.”

 

They smile at each other and Travis walks towards their car. A walker notices them and starts shuffling, approaching slowly. Nick takes care of it and wipes his knife on its clothes. The other already started discussing about this new possibility.

 

Daniel doesn’t look pleased at all. “We don’t know them, it could be a trap, Travis.”

 

“I don’t think it’s a trap.” Madison interferes, leaning her back against the Sedan. “They stopped to see who we were. You are injured, Elyza is recovering too and we could all use a break from driving all day long.” She had a point there and she knew it.

 

“I say we follow them and stay with them for a night, just to see who they are and if we could stay there longer.” Alicia tells them, glancing at Elyza to see if she approves or not. “If we don’t feel welcomed, we can always leave when we want. I think they won’t stop us.”

 

Nick says his opinion. “You know what I think? They need us. They probably wouldn’t have proposed refuge to us if they didn’t.”

 

“Maybe they think we’re safer in numbers.” Ofelia mumbles.

 

“We’re not safe at all.” Daniel corrects his daughter, his hand still on his shoulder. “I think we should find a place where there’s no walker and no humans.”

 

Alicia’s brother rolls his eyes. “I know we’re not safe, but it could be a good decision for us, think about it.” He waits, looking at the Salvadoran man. “We’re only seven now and you need help. Maybe they have someone there that could treat your injury. We won’t know if we don’t go.”

 

Daniel huffs and Travis lets out a smile, knowing that his friend was slowly starting to change his mind about Richard’s proposition. “We need to make a decision and not make them wait longer.” He tells everyone. “I want to go with them and see their place. I’m not saying that we stay permanently, but like Alicia said, if there’s something, we can always leave.”

 

“I’m okay with this.” Madison agrees, looking at her children.

 

“Me too.” Alicia and Nick say at the same time.

 

Elyza still looks unsure about this and waits a few more seconds before answering. “I’ll follow you, guys.”

 

Ofelia’s only response is to nod. Daniel finally agrees with the majority and they start walking towards Richard’s group.

 

While they were discussing, one of the members of the other group released Bandit and the dog, when he sees them approaching, starts waving his tail and makes his way to Alicia. He’s a tall German shepherd and he looks adorable. The brunette crouches in front of the friendly animal to scratch his head and ears. She never had a dog or a cat, even if she begged her mother to have one, because Nick was allergic to them. He always had severe reactions and Madison didn’t want to take chances bringing an animal inside the house – she wasn’t a fan of mice, hamsters, rabbits, snakes or other reptiles either.

 

Bandit gets excited and starts turning around and giving soft growls. “He’s adorable.” Alicia says, looking up at Richard.

 

“He’s my boy. You won’t believe it, but he saved me a few times from bad positions. We’re lucky to have him.” The man explains. Bandit starts letting out a few growls of excitement and barks softly. Richard shushes him, giving him a glare. The dog immediately stops growling, but still shows his excitement by turning around and wagging his tail. “Sorry, he’s a bit happy to see people.”

 

“It’s fine, he’s good.” She smiles when the animal rolls on his back, his paws in the air, silently begging to be pat on the belly. “You’re a good boy, are you?”

 

Richard moves his attention to Travis. “Have you made a decision?” He asks him.

 

“Yeah, we did.” He takes a brief pause. “We’re coming with you.”

 

* * *

 

When Richard told them that his group was living in a former military camp, they didn’t know what to expect, but certainly not something like _this_. The place was similar to when the army came in Travis and Madison’s quarter, except that they have brick fences as well a gate that is guarded by two people. For what they can see from the outside, it looks like a very safe place, surrounded by a ton of cars to contain the walkers from walking directly towards the gates.

 

Richard makes a sign to the two people guarding the gates and they immediately start opening them. They move the cars inside the brick large red brick fence and stop their vehicles. Travis is speechless as he looks around. It looks more comfortable than Mark’s property that was one thing.

 

Elyza is doing the same thing, looking around the area. She sees head turning towards them and she worries about their opinion for a second: what if they didn’t accept them in their group? She knows this might only be temporary, but she wonders if it’s hard for them to welcome newcomers in their safe place. She grabs Alicia’s hand and intertwines their fingers together, letting out a sigh.

 

The brunette smiles as Alejandra, Travis and Ofelia parks their vehicles in a parking lot, where there were a few other cars. “It looks like a very nice place.” Alicia tells and she sees Daniel look around too, seeming to be eager to discover more of this place.

 

They all get out of their vehicles and follow Richard. He smiles widely at every member of their group and says: “Welcome to Hillrise.” He waits a moment before continuing. “You can stay as long as you want, we have a few unoccupied houses that you can settle in. We’ll have a group dinner tonight.” He looks at Daniel and Elyza. “We have a nurse that can take care of your injuries.”

 

“It’s not a bad thing that we came.” The Salvadoran man mumbles, earning a glance from Travis.

 

“Come on, I’ll show you your house.” Richard tells them.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> NEW PEOPLE YAY.


	23. Chapter 23

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Longer chapter because when I have to do homework, I don't... oops.  
> More Lexark scenes, as requested. They're getting closer.  
> We get to know a few more characters :)

Richard shows them their new house with a big grin on his lips. It’s a well-sized house with three bedrooms and two bathrooms, which is large enough for them. There was another room that they could rearrange to be someone’s room. Madison and Travis would take one bedroom for themselves and Daniel was most likely going to have his own too, which leaves Alicia, Elyza, Nick and Ofelia to decide where they would sleep, but it wasn’t important right now. There was only one thing everyone really had in mind.

 

Bath and showers. They really need to clean themselves, because they didn’t really had the time to take care of this while running from walkers and trying not to die from a stranger’s hands. Compared to the members of Richard’s group, they really looked dirty with walker’s blood and their own – mostly Daniel – staining their clothes. Alicia was surprised, in a very good way, when Richard told them that most of the houses had electricity because of their solar panels and generators. This also meant that they had hot water and it was the most delightful thing she ever heard.

 

“I’m sorry, the place is a bit dusty. We don’t usually clean up the houses that we don’t use.” Richard tells them, scratching the back of his head, when he sees Nick gathering the dust on the kitchen counter.

 

Madison smiles reassuringly at him. “We’ve been outside for a little while, it is cleaner than some places we’ve been to.”

 

“How long have you been out there?” He asks, looking at Travis.

 

“It’s been a couple of weeks, almost a month. We were living on a boat before, but we decided that it would be better for us to look for another place.” Alicia’s stepfather answers. “We had altercations with people that wanted the boat and it was harder to get supplies.” The swarthy and bulky man nods silently as Travis continues. “We haven’t stayed at a place for more than three or four days.”

 

“I see.” Richard says. “Well, as I said earlier, you are more than welcome to stay as long as you want. We need to support each other through this.”

 

Elyza looks at him for a moment. “You’re expecting something in return.” It’s not a question, simply a statement. Of course he would expect something from them; he was giving them a place to stay inside walls, where the walkers wouldn’t bother them – or bother them less.

 

He doesn’t look offended at all. “I won’t lie to you: we worked hard to get where we are today and I’m not sure my people would tolerate another group staying here without contributing. It’s only fair to help each other. If this doesn’t suit you, we won’t stop you from leaving.” He waits for a moment before continuing. “Though I hope it doesn’t come to that.”

 

“It won’t.” Travis reassures him. “We want to be here and we’ll help.”

 

“Good thing, then. Everyone is invited for tonight’s dinner. I’ll come pick you by at seven?” Everyone manifests their agreement. “Okay, I’ll let you guys do your things. If one of you is looking for me, I’m the house down the street, the house with the wooden fence.” He turns his back on them but adds: “If I’m not there, Alejandra will and she’ll send you to me. You can explore all you want.”

 

“Thank you Richard, we’ll keep that in mind.” Daniel thanks him.

 

He turns his head towards the Salvadoran man. “Also, if you and Elyza wants to step by the infirmary, it’s not far from the entrance, we passed in front of it. It’s the building with the green doors.”

 

“Thanks.” Elyza tells him.

 

* * *

 

It’s definitely the best shower she ever had in her life. She feels cleaner than ever and her hair smells good. It took a good fifteen minutes under the stream of water for someone to knock on the door and tell her to hurry up. Alicia hurries to remove every inch of dirt from her body before rinsing her body one last time and getting out of the shower. She feels lighter.

 

Elyza wanted to claim the last bedroom as theirs, but saw Madison’s look and let Alicia and Nick share it. She didn’t want the brunette’s mother to be on her back and suddenly appear in the room when they were making out. It would be a very disastrous and uncomfortable situation.

 

Alicia enters her room to find the blonde sprawled on the bed. Nick was nowhere to see; he was probably exploring the area. Good, because it means that she can have a moment alone with Elyza and that was what she had been waiting for since they left the house after the fight.

 

She’s wearing clean clothes too, the ones that she found in the drawer when she searched the room. They’re a little large and she feels like she’s floating in them, but they don’t smell bad and they’re comfortable, which is good enough for her. “Hello stranger.” She says, getting Elyza’s attention.

 

She lets out a noise of complaint and looks up at her. “I was almost asleep.”

 

“You’re in my room.” Alicia retorts, sitting on the bed, a smile at her lips. “If you wanted to sleep without being bothered, you could’ve slept on your couch.”

 

“I wanted to be with you, jerk.” Elyza complains, but the brunette can definitely sense some teasing behind her words. “I guess that all I should do now is leave.”

 

She sits up and Alicia is quick to put her arms around her neck, careful not to brush her neck injury. "Who said that you had permission to leave me?” She asks, mimicking the blonde’s tone.

 

Instead of answering Alicia’s question, Elyza nips at her bottom lip before leaning in and pressing her mouth against hers. Alicia is taken aback by how demanding the kiss is, but it’s not something that bothers her at all. She likes it a lot, in fact. Elyza presses their bodies together and gently forces Alicia to lay on her back before positioning herself on top of her.

 

The brunette lets out a huff when she feels a hand on the back of her thigh, moving up and down until it hooks at the back of her knee. Alicia smiles, moving her hips while raising her knees up to hold Elyza in place on top of her. When their lips pull apart because they’re desperately need to fill their lungs with air, she looks up at Elyza. “I love it when you touch me like that.” She murmurs, as if someone’s going to hear what she says.

 

It definitely draw a smile from the blonde. “Well, that’s a good thing, I love to touch you like that too.” She steals a long kiss and gently sucks Alicia’s bottom lips between hers. “Though your mother knows I’m here and I doubt that she will be happy if she sees how I touch you…”

 

She moves her hand from the back to the front of the brunette’s thigh, fingers brushing the inside of Alicia’s thigh, who does her best not to let out a moan at the simple touch. Elyza is teasing her and she knows this, but she can’t stop it from affecting her. Her hips buckle up on their own and she sees the spark of excitement in the blonde’s blue eyes, staring at her. It’s almost like she’s trying to decide whether or not it is a good idea to keep doing this.

 

Alicia really wants to stop caring about whatever her mother could say about them. But the fear of them getting caught is enough for her to push Elyza back a little, giving her a sorry smile. “You’re right, we should stop.” She gulps and sees blue eyes looking down when she starts chewing her bottom lip nervously. “Anyway, Richard will come pick us up for the dinner soon.” And there was that too.

 

“Yeah.” Elyza lets out, reluctant to pull away. Alicia’s arms are still around her neck and she knows that she’s not the only one that doesn’t to stop this.

 

* * *

 

The dinner, as it turns out, is very entertaining. It’s in Richard’s house that is big enough to welcome a lot of people for the small event. Alicia and Elyza get to know more about the people living in Hillrise. Most of them were living there before the outbreak happened. Some were from the military and they had been assigned to this area, having the words to protect it. It was Richard’s case: he was a sergeant and helped to save a lot of lives when the situation started really bad. Everyone considered him as the leader of their group.

 

Everyone of their group participated to the dinner, even Daniel. He excused himself and left early, claiming that he was really tired and needed some more sleep. Ofelia left with him and the party continued.

 

Alicia doesn’t remember the las time she ate that much; she had never been one to have a big appetite, but this time it was very different. She ate twice the portions she would usually eat. Elyza pats her belly, giving a look of sympathy to the brunette. Both are very full, but they don’t care, they haven’t had a good proper meal for _days_. Eating this much without having to make rations is something they could never do.

 

Before their arrival, Richard’s group counted 18 members, though the beefy man informed them that there were still some of their people outside, looking for supplies. They’re a large community and Elyza was surprised that they lasted this long; yes, there was a few deaths here and there, but their group was still larger than hers.

 

Elyza immediately gets along with Shawn, the nurse that took care of her and Daniel in the late afternoon – after things got heated between her and Alicia. He is Richard’s older brother and they were in the military together and they are still very close. He has the same musculature than his brother’s and they almost look the same – even is Shawn insists that they’re not twins. If it wasn’t from the nurse’s beard, she’s sure that she would mix them up.

 

He’s hitting on her and she thinks that it’s adorably cute; he doesn’t even stand a chance against Alicia. If she would swing both ways, probably, but she’s very, _very_ gay for Alicia. They walk in the kitchen and he offers Elyza a beer. She accepts it, of course, because she’s not against having a little fun.

 

Alicia, who was caught in the middle of a conversation with Ofelia and Alejandra, not understanding half the words they say because they’re speaking Spanish sometimes, finally slips away and joins the blonde in the kitchen.

 

“Hey.” The brunette says timidly, looking at Elyza.

 

“There you are, I thought you were avoiding me.” She teases her.

 

Alicia rolls her eyes. “I was with O. and Alejandra and I don’t even know what they were talking about.” She looks at her favourite blue eyes and the corners of her lips lifts up in a smile.

 

“They were talking in Spanish?”

 

“Yeah.”

 

Shawn clear his throat to get their attention and Elyza suddenly remembers that she was talking with them before getting interrupted by Alicia. “Sorry, let me introduce you to each other.” She tells them. “Alicia, this is Shawn.”

 

“You’re the nurse, right?” The younger woman asks.

 

“That is me.” He answers, a grin on his lips. “Nice to meet you, Alicia.”

 

They shake each other’s hands and Alicia thinks that this man has a very firm but gentle handshake. She immediately sees the familiarity in his traits. “Nice to meet you too. You look so much like Richard.”

 

“He’s my brother.”

 

Elyza continues. “They were soldiers assigned to this military camp.”

 

“That is right.” He says, looking at the blonde in a way that she doesn’t really like.

 

Alicia frowns and both Elyza and Shawn notice it. “We’ve had bad experiences with military soldiers, sorry.” She tells him. He quirks his eyebrows, waiting for more explanation. “When the military showed up in our neighborhood, they had a hospital to take care and experiment on sick and injured people. When it everything got bad, they took my brother and Ofelia’s mother. We got Nick back just in time, but Griselda died before we got there.” Then there was the time when Chris got beaten up by military soldiers because they wanted their car full of supplies… and Ofelia getting shot by Andrew. They don’t have a really great history dealing with the military that is for sure.

 

“I’m sorry about that.” He tells her with sincerity.

 

She shrugs. “No, you shouldn’t be sorry about that. It’s not your fault.”

 

Shawn pinches his lips together. “We made a temporary hospital for sick people too, just a block away from here. It’s infested of dead people now.” He takes a pause before continuing. “We experimented on sick people too.”

 

That is something that the two young women definitely want to hear about. “Oh yeah? Do you know something about the disease that turns people into walkers?” Elyza asks him.

 

“Oh, so you call them _walkers_?” He says rhetorically. “We call them creepers. I don’t actually know much about the disease. We ran a few test on someone that had been bitten, we wanted to know why people were turning after their deaths.” He shrugs. “We didn’t have enough time to find out.”

 

“Do you know anything more on that, like how it all started?” Alicia wonders, crossing her arms on her chest.

 

“Not really, just a few theories.” He says, starting to explain. “I personally think that the science military wanted to create some sort of super soldiers and it turned out to be very deadly.” He sighs. “Richard and Alejandra believe that it was probably a virus that developed itself in another country. A traveler gets sick and dies and nobody thinks it’s important to worry about this, because he was just one case. Then, when it started to spread, it was already too late for doctors and scientists to run tests and find a cure.”

 

“Both are plausible theories.” Elyza tells him.

 

Shawn nods. “Yes, but there’s no point on focusing on that now. We don’t really have the tools right now to know to elaborate on this and we should focus on surviving.” He has a point; both Elyza and Alicia think it would be a waste of time to do research on that. They know they can’t cure anyone from a walker’s bite. “Can I offer you a beer, Alicia?”

 

She shakes her head negatively. “No, I don’t like beer much.” The brunette doesn’t think Madison would approve of her drinking. The last time, she ended up in bed and got surprised by her making out in bed with Elyza. No, she would pass for this time.

 

“Fine. Don’t be shy if you decide you want one.”

 

* * *

 

Shawn if definitely hitting on Elyza openly and Alicia has to refrain herself from doing something totally stupid. Hillrise is his safe place, he is nice towards her group and he doesn’t deserve to undergo the brunette’s cold demeanor.

 

But she can’t, not at the way he leans his body towards the blonde, who does nothing. She knows that she shouldn’t be jealous because _Elyza is gay_ and he doesn’t stand a chance because he is a man. But she can’t, because he smiles at her with all his pretty white teeth and he looks handsome with his beard and she knows even Elyza would be jealous if he was hitting on her.

 

Alicia tries to focus on the conversation and not to him slowly getting closer to the blonde. It’s not subtle at all.

 

“You should definitely try Alejandra’s moonshine, it’s delicious.” He tells her and Alicia can’t help but think that he’s trying to get her drunk to sleep with her.

 

Elyza shakes her head negatively. She downed three beers in the past hour and she knows that if she drinks more, she would end up with her face buried in the toilet for a night. That’s not how she wants her night to end, no. “I’m fine, that was my last beer anyway.”

 

Alicia slides her hand in Elyza’s and gives her a smile. Shawn catches the movement, there’s no doubt, when his eyes lowers a little. “I think it’s my time to go, it was a long day.”

 

The blonde’s smiles widens and intertwines their fingers together. “Want me to come with you?”

 

“No, you can stay here, have some fun.” Alicia tells her. “Wake me up tomorrow?”

 

“If that’s what you want.”

 

She nods and leans to press her lips against, just for a second. There wasn’t anyone left in the kitchen at this time; it was dark outside, everyone left Richard and Shawn’s place or they were hanging out in the living room. Elyza smiles into the kiss and pulls apart. She knows exactly what Alicia is doing; making sure that Shawn understands that they’re together and that he should stop wasting his time.

 

Alicia glances at him and smiles. “Goodnight, Shawn.”

 

His facial expression doesn’t waver at all and the brunette thinks that he’s very good to hide his emotions. “Goodnight, Alicia.”

 

* * *

 

She leaves the house after saying goodbye to the remaining attendees. The night is cold but she doesn’t bother, it would only take her a few minutes to walk to her new home. If she looks back on the day she had, she’d say that things got worse and then better. She is very happy that her group came across Richard’s, on the road. They were welcomed with wide open arms and now and invited to stay as long as they wanted to. They made a great decision coming in Hillrise; Alicia knows that they will have to face the walkers again, because Richard mentioned that they were going on supply runs regularly. Though, she was relieved that they wouldn’t have to care about where they would sleep and with whom they would cross path.

 

She walks slowly, looking up to admire the stars. It’s not something she had been used to do since they left Strand’s boat; they usually don’t get outside houses in the middle of the night, because it’s more dangerous that it already is with walkers and other threats. And it’s not like looking from a window is entertaining. Alicia likes to feel the wind blowing in her hair, the smell of nature and look at the reflection of the moonlight on anything that reflects the light. She prefers the beauty of the night to the day. It’s peaceful.

 

Alicia hears footsteps coming towards her and she turns her head to see who is approaching. It’s Elyza, walking a little bit faster than her to catch up. The brunette stops and turns completely to face the blonde.

 

When she is at a few feet from her, she slows down. “You didn’t want to stay with Shawn?” Alicia asks, giving her an innocent look.

 

Elyza smirks and closes the distance between them, enlacing Alicia’s middle. “I think you ruined his mood when you kissed me.” She chuckles.

 

“Are you complaining?”

 

“Not at all, I was actually wondering when you’d do something like that.” She tells her. “You realise you were not very subtle at all, right?”

 

“He wasn’t either.” She counters blatantly.

 

“Oh really?”

 

Alicia rolls her eyes and states: “You were trying to make me jealous.” She cups Elyza’s face with her hands, careful not to apply any pressure just in case it would hurt her – she still has her black-eye and it’s still very sensible.

 

“And it worked.”

 

“Of course, it worked.” She leans in to kiss her a few seconds, then pulls back. “What did he say after?”

 

“That I should probably join my girlfriend.” She answers. “He didn’t seem annoyed about us, I think he was just… surprised a little.”

 

Her words resonate in Alicia’s head. “Is that what we are?”

 

“What?”

 

“I mean… _girlfriends_.”

 

“Do you want us to be?” Alicia hears the reluctance in Elyza’s voice. It lets her know that she would probably be hurt if she says that she doesn’t want to be with her – which is not the case, evidently.

 

The brunette frantically nods, a smile on her face. “I mean, if you want to be mine… I wouldn’t be opposed to be yours.”

 

Elyza lets out a nervous chuckle. “Perfect then. So now I can give you as many nicknames as I want?”

 

“Like it never stopped you before…”

 

 


	24. Chapter 24

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay guys, read attentively!!!!!
> 
> It took me a while to write this chapter, because I had a really, really shitty week and I wanted this to be perfect. Tell me if it was worth the wait. 
> 
> Warning: mature rating... pretty much all the chapter. #whoopsie.

After getting back to their new house, holding each other’s hands, a smile on their face, Alicia and Elyza discover that Madison is still awake, probably waiting for them to come back from the dinner at Richard’s place. The brunette groaned in frustration, thinking that she would finally allow her girlfriend and her to sleep in the same bed, but no. It was getting really annoying, this whole display of protectiveness.

 

Elyza told her that it didn’t bother her, that she would sleep on the couch like it was intended to. She would have preferred to share the bed with Alicia, of course, because it’s much more comfortable than a couch. She walked the brunette to her room and kissed her goodnight, waiting for her to close the door before moving to the living room. She chatted a bit with Madison before the woman claimed to be tired and left her. Elyza knows that the older blonde only wanted to make sure she was staying out of her daughter’s room.

 

Later that night, Nick came back from the dinner at Richard’s. He was slightly inebriated because of the alcohol but, hey, it’s better than drugs. Elyza was staring at the ceiling when he pushed the door open and stumbled in the living room. He excused himself and sat on the couch, saying a lot of incoherent things. When he started to closes his eyes against his own will, she proposed to him to sleep on the couch, which he agreed.

 

Everyone in the house was asleep, she could hear Daniel loud yet comforting snoring resonating in the house. It was time for her to move; she had an opening, Madison wasn’t watching her. It was a good moment to sneak into Alicia and Nick’s room, because the mother would only think it’s her son getting back from the dinner. Elyza doesn’t really care if she gets yelled at, because it would have been worth it.

 

She doesn’t bother trying to hide that she’s making her way to the room. If she tried, Madison could have wondered if it was Nick or not and caught her. She just walks normally and pushes the door, just like Alicia’s brother would do. She sees almost nothing because it’s dark in the room.

 

Elyza walks to the bed and immediately get under the covers. The brunette doesn’t wake up, exhausted by the day they had, but she sighs when she feels warm arms covering her middle.

 

* * *

 

Alicia wakes up slowly, realising that there was a body practically on top of hers, pinning her to the bed. She is a little bit surprised when she sees a blonde mane instead of Nick’s mid-long brown hair. Again, they’re a mess of tangled arms and legs and Alicia doubts that she would sleep in such position with her brother.

 

She gently nudges the blonde in the ribs, earning a muffled squeal from her. Now, she is definitely awake. Alicia’s lips form a smirk when Elyza turns her head from its emplacement – the brunette’s crook of neck – to give her a glare. She is a very ticklish person and could murder someone being woken up like that… everyone except her girlfriend.

 

“Good morning.” Alicia tells her innocently. The blonde only groans in response, returning to her comfortable previous position. “If I remember correctly, you were supposed to sleep on the couch.” Elyza makes a sound of approval and the brunette chuckles lowly. “How the hell did you end up in my bed?”

 

She can hear her girlfriend mumbling the words against her throat. “I did a magic trick.”

 

“I’m serious, Elyza.” She retorts, though there is amusement in her voice.

 

“I walked in.”

 

Alicia scoffs. “Just like that?” Another approval sound. “My Mom let you?”

 

Elyza pulls back a little and gives her a wide grin. “Not exactly, she was already in bed when I came in.” She sees Alicia rolling her eyes at her. “I wasn’t planning on coming, actually, but Nick came home tipsy and he fell asleep on my couch.”

 

“Are you sure you didn’t blackmailed him?” She asks, narrowing her eyes.

 

“I don’t any information on him worth for blackmailing.” She tells Alicia. “I didn’t really want to use the condoms against him. That would have felt like a low blow… and I just took the opportunity to sneak in your room. Do you really think that I would do that to your brother?”

 

Alicia waits a few seconds, making the suspense last, then answers. “No, that doesn’t sound like you at all.” And she is not teasing. If Elyza wants something, she doesn’t take four ways to get to it. The blonde smiles and closes her eyes for a moment, appreciating to wake up in her girlfriend’s arms. “You still sneaked in my room in the middle of the night.” Alicia continues, her hand wandering in the blonde’s, making patters on her t-shirt.

 

“Yeah and I’m very happy that I did.” Elyza lets out a sigh of contentment, appreciating the brunette’s simple touch. “This feels really good.” She murmurs.

 

Alicia bites her lower lip, looking up at the ceiling. “Can I ask you a question?”

 

“Sure.”

 

“Okay… if you don’t want to answer, its fine, you don’t have to. I know it’s kind of personal…” She waits a few seconds and finally asks: “Did you… you know, had sex with a lot of girls?”

 

It takes a short moment for the blonde to answer. “Define a lot?”

 

She didn’t want to say a random number and make Elyza feel bad about herself. She didn’t want to know how many partners she had in her life, she just wants to know how _experienced_ she is. “I don’t know… I’ve only slept with Matt.” She focuses a moment on the pattern she makes on Elyza’s back with her hand. “I’ve never kissed a girl before you… and now we’re together…”

 

“Are you nervous?”

 

“No, I’m just saying that… I might not be up to your expectations.”

 

Elyza lets out a hum and presses her lips against Alicia’s throat again. “I don’t have any expectations from you, cheekbones.” She lowers her head to kiss her collarbone. “I’ve slept with five girls.” Most of them were one night stands, the last time with Lindsey too.

 

Alicia is okay with the blonde’s number, not that it’s something that she shouldn’t be okay with. Elyza had the right to sleep with as many people as she wanted and judging her for that would be unfair. Alicia didn’t want to slut shame her girlfriend, but she was interested in her experience. “But you know… I’ve never really being into a relationship before.” Elyza blurts out. “So I’ve never done it regularly. They were mostly one-time thing.”

 

“That’s okay.” Alicia moves her hand to her girlfriend’s neck, massaging slightly, then returning back to doing patterns on her back. She hears a sigh and deduces that Elyza likes it a lot.

 

The brunette closes her eyes when she feels the blonde’s hands on her stomach, under her t-shirt. They move up a little, just above her navel, then move to her sides and finally her back. Elyza repeats the movement while gently kissing her collarbone. These littles attentions were making her feel really good, a warm sensation settling in her lower stomach. She bites her lower lip when she feels the said hands brushing under her breasts with her thumb, reminding her that she wasn’t wearing a bra this time.

 

Elyza closes her lips around her girlfriend’s earlobe, earning a soft moan that sounds melodic to her ears. She nips at it and lowers her mouth to Alicia’s neck, gently sucking at her pulse point. She can feel her chest moving up and down rapidly, because of her fast breathing, hands clutching at Elyza’s t-shirt.

 

When the blonde lifts herself up to kiss her, Alicia slips one of her thigh between her legs, craving for more physical contact. Elyza feels the shift in the mood and drags her hands up, on her girlfriend’s sides, a smug smirk creeping at her lips when she hears her breath hitch under the touch.

 

They pull apart for a second and look in each other’s eyes, blue eyes meeting green ones. “Is this alright?” The blonde asks, lowering her gaze to motion the location of her hands.

 

Alicia nods and leans her head against the pillow. “You can… remove my t-shirt, if you want.” Her cheeks immediately becomes redder at her words. She never was a shy person about anything sex related with Matt, but learning to discover herself through someone else’s hands and eyes is very different. Not that she doesn’t like it; Alicia loves it. She’s just not used to it yet.

 

“Are you sure?” Elyza asks, meeting the brunette’s eyes once more to see if she truly wanted this. When her girlfriend gives her another nod of approval, her tongue poking out to wet her already swollen lips, the blonde thinks that, even with the ongoing apocalypse, it’s the best day of her life. “Okay, lift yourself up a little.” She instructs.

 

She takes the hem of her t-shirt and removes it, going slowly just in case Alicia would change her mind about taking the piece of clothing off.

 

The sight in front of Elyza is compelling and she can’t help but clench her legs against Alicia’s thigh, feeling the arousal pooling in her lower belly. Her eyes trail on the new expanse of smooth skin revealed and her mouth starts watering.

 

Alicia remains a little bit timid under her girlfriend’s stare, though she definitely feels worshipped at the same time. Moving a hand on the back of Elyza’s neck, the brunette gently obliges her to press their bodies back together, while she presses their lips together in a more vivid kiss that makes their head spin.

 

They don’t think about anything else but themselves. Chances that Madison or anyone else would enter the room while they were making out were very little, now that they had found a safe community and they could finally relax a lot more.

 

The brunette lets out a sigh, feeling her perked nipples brushing against the material of Elyza’s t-shirt. It feels good, but she would prefer, without any doubts, to feel her skin instead of her clothing. She moves her hands to grab the hem of the blonde’s t-shirt and tugs. Her girlfriend understands quickly and they stop kissing only to remove it. Elyza slept with her bra on – she got used to sleeping with it, because walkers wouldn’t wait for her to put it on before attacking her.

 

Elyza, in one swift movement, moves her hand in her back and unclasps it, biting her bottom lip. She sees Alicia’s gaze lowering to her chest as the pulls down the straps one at the time.

  
Alicia hooks her finger on the bridge of the bra, just between the two cups, and slowly tugs. Elyza straightens her arms and the bra come off easily, revealing nice and perky breasts. It doesn’t bother Alicia that they are bigger than hers, because she thinks that they are perfect no matter the size they are – both hers and girlfriend’s.

 

First, they explore each other with their eyes and Alicia feels the burning in her cheeks increase when she sees Elyza swallowing slowly, admiring eyes travelling every inch of exposed skin on her body. “Your boobs are perfect.” She blurts out without thinking.

 

Alicia cracks a smile. “You say that like you’re a twelve years old teenage boy.” She teases her, letting out a low chuckle. “You could tell me I’m perfect too.”

 

“No, that would be too cliché.” The blonde presses their bodies together once more. This time, Elyza can appreciate the warm feeling of Alicia’s skin against hers – and their breasts pressed together too. “But I can say that you are marvelous.”

 

The brunette shakes her head negatively. “No one uses that word anymore.”

 

Elyza buries her face in her girlfriend’s neck, gently kissing and sucking her skin. She stops after a few seconds to answer. “Magnificent, then?”

 

“You can do better, I’m sure of it.”

 

She waits a moment as her fingers travel from Alicia’s stomach to her shoulder, brushing one of her hardened nipple innocently. The brunette closes her eyes at the motion and listen to Elyza. “Gorgeous? Splendid?”

 

“You have a vast imagination…”

 

“You have no idea, Alicia.”

 

Elyza moves to the other side of her neck, giving the same ministrations. Alicia mentally swears that the blonde will be the death of her. She knows that they agreed to take things slowly, but this was just _torturous_. She was just driving her crazy with the light touches, the gentle nips, the kisses in the neck… and now those innuendos about her vast imagination – Alicia now isn’t against taking things further.

 

She is the first of them to make a move, but she knows that it’s because Elyza is only waiting for her consent to take things to the next level. Alicia moves her hands to cup the blonde’s breasts in them; she starts slowly massaging them, appreciating the hard nubs poking at her palms, an indication that Elyza likes it. They’ve touched each other intimately before, but Alicia never touched her girlfriend this way – it was always the blonde initiating.

 

Elyza stops kissing her neck, too focused on Alicia’s hands massaging her boobs to continue. She parts her lips and closes her eyes, trying to forget about how _drenched_ her panties are at the moment and her desire to grind herself down on Alicia’s thigh, eager for release the tension building in her stomach.

 

She lets out a strangled moan when the brunette pinches her nipples between her thumbs and fingers – and she wonders for a second what those slender fingers could do to her before pushing the thought of her mind.

 

“Can I touch you too?” Elyza asks with a husky voice.

 

Alicia smiles, understanding that her girlfriend is probably as aroused as she is. “Yes you can.” She agrees, enjoying the warm breath of the blonde in her neck. “Do you like that?”

 

“Very.” She mumbles.

 

Before Alicia can register what Elyza is doing, she feels a mouth close around her nipple and her breath hitch again. “Oh god.” She moves her hands to the blonde’s hair, applying a little more pressure. “That feels…” Elyza’s tongue swipes on the hardened nub and she forgets what she was about to say when fingers start playing with her other breast.

 

Elyza can’t help but be proud of herself to make her girlfriend speechless – because than can only be a good thing. She loves the way Alicia applies pressure on her head as she sucks harder. It makes her squirm underneath the blonde.

 

She decides that it’s time to give attention to her other breast and latches her mouth to it too. Her left hand moves up, not wanting to stop playing with her boobs yet, and she plays with the nub wet with her saliva, running a thumb on it.

 

Alicia bites her bottom lip when she feels Elyza’s teeth closing gently against her nipple and tugging. She shivers from her head to her toes and presses her thigh against the blonde center. Elyza stiffens for a second and then rolls her hips against Alicia’s, grinding against the thigh. When she realises what she’s done, she stops and pulls back, stopping her ministrations and looking up at the brunette.

 

“Sorry, I’m just…” She feels her cheeks warming up. “… very, _very_ …” She feels Alicia pressing her thigh against her center in a totally non-innocent way, quirking her eyebrows – it’s distracting Elyza, how she can only move a little and make her forget about the things she wanted to say.

 

It’s the brunette’s turn to smirk smugly. “I can see that.” Elyza is well aware, because of the way her body is responding to Alicia’s teasing thigh pressing against her center, that it wouldn’t take her long to climax. Her panties are already ruined, that is a statement.

 

Elyza pulls Alicia into a bruising kiss, desperately wanting more. Her hands moves to her girlfriend’s hips, caressing her hipbone and brushing the skin above the waistband of her sweatpants.

 

Alicia moans at the sudden movement, letting Elyza slip her tongue in her mouth, dominating the kiss, thinking that this is feeling _right_. She could never get tired of the blonde taking the leads like that, making Alicia putty in her hands.

 

The kiss ends with Elyza sucking the brunette’s bottom lips between hers, then nipping with a little more pressure than she wanted to. Alicia feels the pain for a second, but it disappear when a tongue soothes her lip.

 

“I want you.” Alicia murmurs, looking at her girlfriend in the eyes. “I want to make love.”

 

For her, making love is more than just sex. She was never a person to do casual sex anyways and she doesn’t see herself getting there with a stranger – she feels the need to be in a relationship with someone, to have _feelings_ for them before getting intimate this way. She has feelings for Elyza and now she’s ready to make this final step with her.

 

“Right now?” The blonde asks, a smile on her lips.

 

“I mean, if you want to… yeah.” She cups her girlfriend’s face and smiles back at her, trying to calm her heartrate.

 

Elyza is very happy that Alicia wants to make love with her. “Do you want me to remove your pants?” Alicia nods her approval.

 

She moves her hands in front of Alicia’s pants and looks down at their bodies pressed together. Elyza pulls back a little and sees her girlfriend’s face, missing the contact of their skin together. She giggles at her reaction and unties the lace in front of the brunette’s sweatpants. “If you want to stop–”

 

“I don’t.” Alicia cuts her, reassurance and confidence in her tone. Elyza unzips the zipper and lowers her body, trailing kisses down Alicia’s. She stops at her stomach and gently nips at the skin. The brunette lets out a shaky breath as her body trembles. “…fuck.” She doesn’t know what to do with her hands, so she just grips at the bedsheet and closes her eyes, focusing on the blonde’s mouth ravaging her stomach with kisses, nips and licks.

 

Elyza hooks her fingers inside the waistband of her girlfriend’s sweatpants and pulls them down slowly. Alicia lifts her ass to help her to get rid of it and brings her knees up. The blonde struggles a second at the ankles, but she finally removes it and toss it on the ground.

 

She can’t help but look down at Alicia’s panties. They’re plain and black, nothing very extravagant, but it looks very good on her. Her eyes trails lower for a second and sees the glistening wet spot on the fabric, knowing that she is also in a similar situation.

 

“Do you want me to remove my pants too?” She asks, tentatively running her fingernails on the skin above Alicia’s panties.

 

Alicia lets out a sigh. “Yes.”

 

She moves her hands to her jeans and gets on her knees. She unbuttons them and takes her time to unzip it, not letting go of Alicia’s gaze for a second. The brunette drags her hands up and down Elyza’s thighs before the blonde pulls them down, stopping mid-thigh. She has to reposition herself, hovering over Alicia, one hand supporting herself, while she removes her jeans with the other. It’s harder to remove when you’re on top of someone else, but Elyza manages to do it just fine. She’s just wearing a black thong and Alicia’s mouth starts watering at the sight.

 

They enjoy feeling each other’s warm legs against the other. Alicia feels a little bit shy at first, because she didn’t really thought about shaving her legs, but it doesn’t seem like Elyza is bothered about it.

 

Elyza finds her mouth again, trying to slow down the pace a little, but Alicia deepens the kiss, eager for more. She parts her legs and the blonde runs a hand on the inside of her thighs, each time getting closer to her girlfriend’s center. It takes about one more minute before Elyza cups Alicia’s center with said hand, over her drenched panties, earning a soft moan from her.

 

She moves up and down and Alicia stiffens, feeling a jolt of pleasure in her body. She stops kissing Elyza and buries her face in her neck, unable to focus at doing two things at the same time. “Fuck, Elyza…” She lets out a quiet gasp as the blonde applies more pressure and does circle motions.

 

After a moment, the hand is removed from her center and she almost whines at the loss of stimulation. The blonde hooks her fingers at the waistband of her pants and gives her a glance, waiting for her approval. She nods and her panties are slowly discarded.

 

Even if she claims that she is quite confident with her body, Alicia always felt a little shy with Matt when it came time to remove her last piece of clothing covering her private parts. They would usually have sex at night and with the lights off. It wasn’t because her body bothered her, it was different… because being naked with someone means something for her.

 

But with Elyza, she doesn’t feel this shyness or nervousness at all. She knows the blonde will worship every inch of her skin and parts of her body – not that Matt never done it before, but this is a very different situation. So when her girlfriend toss her panties on the ground to join their other clothes, she bites her lips and doesn’t feel the need to cover herself.

 

They kiss another long moment, Elyza surprising her when she sucks her tongue, then making her way down her body, leaving open-mouthed kisses on her skin. Alicia looks down and see the blonde smile smugly while catching her gaze. “Are you still okay?” She asks, pressing her lips against her hipbone.

 

Alicia does her best to stay still as she feel her sucking hard, right there. “I’m naked underneath you.” She breathes out. “I think I am more than okay.”

 

Elyza leaves a hickey and the brunette rolls her eyes. Of course it would be something she would do, though she is glad that it was somewhere she could hide it from her mother. The last thing she wants right now is being scolded by her mother because she had sex with her girlfriend – not to say that Madison still doesn’t even know that they’re together officially.

 

She is thinking ungodly dirty things when she sees Elyza moving lower, parting her legs and attacking the inside of her thigh with her lips _oh so close_ of where she wanted those lips. The blonde takes her time and it definitely frustrates Alicia, but she waits, because that’s honestly the only thing she can do right now. Elyza has her putty in her hands. If anyone were to interrupt them in such an intimate position, Alicia would probably kill them, because it was the first time in months that she allowed herself to take care of her sexual frustration. It’s not like she had the time to get herself off – if she wasn’t chased by zombies, she was sharing a bed with someone. She couldn’t just lock herself up and make herself come, it would have been suspicious.

 

Elyza looks up to admire Alicia’s center, wet with her arousal. She wants to press her lips against it and gather the wetness on her tongue, but it was such an intimate action that she didn’t think Alicia would be ready for this. She would prefer to be asked to do it rather than just doing it.

 

They’ve been taking their time, undressing and exploring each other for over thirty minutes now. This slow pace was certainly having effects on both of them. Alicia can’t wait for Elyza’s finger to make her see stars and Elyza can’t wait to make the brunette writhe underneath her.

 

She moves up against Alicia’s body one more time, putting a knee between her legs but not bringing it against her glistening wet center. She leaves enough space for her hand to slips between her leg and the brunette’s center. Elyza isn’t surprised when the arousal coats her fingers and the palm of her hand.

 

Alicia places a hand over her mouth, because it’s the only way she won’t do any sounds that would be suspicious for the others in the house. She isn’t a very loud person, but long and teasing foreplay always made her desperately squirming and having difficulty to hold back her moans of pleasure.

 

Elyza is taking care again of her breasts, only with her lips and tongue this time, while she slowly drags her fingers up and down the brunette’s slit. She strokes her clit with her thumb and the blonde swears that she sees her girlfriend’s eyes roll in the back of her head for a second. She can’t help but grind herself down on Alicia’s thigh, craving for more friction. It’s not as hard for her to keep quiet, because she tries to give all her attention to the brunette.

 

Alicia feels slender fingers teasing her entrance and she bucks her hips against Elyza’s hand, wanting to feel her inside her. “Just…” She lets out a sigh of contentment when the blonde middle finger gently pushes all the way inside her.

 

Elyza pulls out and thrust once more, at an incredibly slow pace, while sucking the perky nipples of her girlfriend. She keeps grinding, though applies more pressure and, _oh god_ , she is very thankful for the mattress to not do squeaky sounds.

 

She enjoys the tight ring of muscles closing on her fingers as she curls her fingers, hitting that right spot that make Alicia swears under her breath. The tension in her lower stomach becomes slowly unbearable. She looks at Elyza and asks, desperation in her voice: “Touch my clit, _please_.”

 

The blonde knows too well, with the way her girlfriend’s core is clenching around her fingers that it wouldn’t take her much to come. She obliges, this time touching it with the palm of her hand, while Alicia’s hips moves to meet it. She thrusts a few more time, rubbing her unhooded clit, and Elyza watches her climaxing underneath her, not bothering to take care of her breasts right now.

 

She watches as Alicia comes undone, freeing her mouth to put both her hands on Elyza’s shoulders, fingers digging in her skin – it doesn’t hurt her, but it sure turns her on even more.

 

Elyza keeps rubbing herself on her girlfriend’s thigh, her movement becoming sloppy as she feels the orgasm building in her stomach. Alicia takes her hand, the one that made her mind explode, and brings it to her mouth, sucking her own arousal off Elyza’s fingers. It’s what does it for the blonde: she suddenly stops moving and her mouth opens, letting out a silent cry, her other hand clutching at the bedsheets.

 

Alicia’s hand moves south and she starts rubbing her over sensitive clit rapidly as she watches Elyza orgasms. The blonde notices the movement and she looks at her through hooded eyes, parting her lips and retrieving her fingers from Alicia’s mouth.

 

They look at each other and Alicia is _so close_ to come again. Elyza notices it and she feels honored, in some sort of way, that her girlfriend is comfortable enough to touch herself while she watches – because _holy fuck_ it’s fucking beautiful. “Come for me, baby.” Elyza blurts out.

 

And Alicia comes undone one more time.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope that all of you sinners are happy now. 
> 
> I take request, as always.
> 
> A part of this chapter was a request from Gloriah: "Alicia asked Elyza about how many girls she's slept with and since the number is very high Alicia gets a little bit jealous but also a little bit worried, since she has zero experience with girls." Hope you liked it, even if she didn't really get jealous ;)


	25. Chapter 25

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is mostly a filler chapter and I know it's short, but I wanted to post it.
> 
> I won't be able to update tomorrow (April 12th).

It’s definitely the best time she ever had sex in her life. With Elyza, she felt loved and worshipped from her head to toes and there wasn’t any words to describe how good it was to come undone underneath her. She had been thinking for a while about it – saying otherwise would be lying – and she has her head in the cloud, because she knows her girlfriend is a good lover and wouldn’t push her to do anything she didn’t want to do.

 

Elyza, on the other hand, feels really proud of herself. She took her time with Alicia, listening closely to her words and body language to determine what she truly needed. She adored the spark of lust in her girlfriend’s eyes, mixed with a lot of trust, while she was letting go of all the physical and emotional barrier.

 

Even though the blonde came while grinding herself on Alicia, the desire is still there. It wasn’t a mind swirling orgasm, even if it was a good one, and she would have preferred to come with those slender fingers. She doesn’t want to push her to do something she isn’t ready for. She understands how scary it is to explore this complete other side of her sexuality – Alicia only ever slept with Matt and she never kissed a woman before. Kissing is not that different, but having sex is. People might say that it’s not and they claim that they’re women and they know what every women like… but it’s a false statement – mostly done by men. It’s the same plumbing, but not all women like the same things. Some liked fingering more and others to play with their clit. Alicia was somewhere in the middle and Elyza likes it very much.

 

After Alicia gets down of her second orgasm, they kiss tenderly for a while, until Elyza starts clenching her thighs together, feeling the need to use the bathroom. It’s always like that when she comes, whether it’s from her fingers or someone else’s. It’s hard for her to have multiple orgasms because after she climaxes, especially in the morning, she is very sensitive and the need increases rapidly.

 

“We should go downstairs.” Elyza says, pressing soft kisses on her girlfriend’s perfect jawline. “Your mother probably knows that I’m in your room.”

 

Alicia smiles and nods. “She certainly does.” And she didn’t care about anything else, because she just had the most amazing sex of her life. Elyza is right, they need to get out of the room, take a shower and meet the others. They’ve been in Hillrise for two complete days now and they know that they’ll soon have to start working with the others. Just enjoying the warmth of their bed wouldn’t be enough, they need to contribute to this small community.

 

They share a few more kisses and Elyza finally gets on her feet. She isn’t shy at all about her body. She smirks when she picks up her jeans on the ground, looking at Alicia. Her girlfriend’s eyes were trailing down on her body, appreciating the fine curve of her ass. “See something you like?”

 

“Perhaps.” She bites her lips and glances up to the blonde’s eyes.

 

Elyza quirks her eyebrows and puts her jeans on, seeing the confusion in the brunette’s green eyes. Her backpack and clothes were in the living room, right behind the couch where Nick passed out the last night. Since she didn’t have any change of clothes, she decided to wear her jeans without anything else.

 

Alicia doesn’t even know why she is surprised that her girlfriend is going commando, because that’s so like Elyza to do something like this.

 

* * *

 

It seems like Madison didn’t even register that Elyza sneaked in Alicia’s room in the middle of the night, when she was sleeping. The two young women were the last one awake – or at least the last ones out of their room. The brunette’s is much more concerned about her son’s massive hangover. He drank way too much the night before and now he was complaining about his headache and heartache. She is not mad at him for the hangover, but she knows that, with inebriated thoughts, her son could have taken drugs or anything else. It happened before and that was why she wanted him to stay sober… even if she can’t force him to do anything. Nick is an adult, after all.

 

Her son’s addiction bothers her less and less, but she knows that everyone should still be cautious and look after him. Anything could change his mind and he can decide that the answer to all his problems is getting high. Madison doesn’t want this to happen, because she knows that Nick could have complications to start using after such a long period without drugs in his system. He could overdose and that terrifies her.

 

There is another important matter concerning Nick’s drugs addiction. They just arrived in a community that welcomed them with wide open arms, without even asking where they were from or anything else which is, according to Madison, very unlikely. If her son suddenly starts to misbehave and manipulate someone to satiate his addiction, she is sure that the members of the Hillrise community wouldn’t see this as a good thing.

 

Alicia and Elyza get to the living room, where there are scrambled eggs on a plate and toasts. The blonde smiles, telling everyone in the room – Madison, Travis and Ofelia – that this is the best day or her life, before taking a plate, putting a pile of the said scrambled eggs on it and shoving a spoonful in her mouth. She moans at the savor. “Mmmmm this tastes like heaven.”

 

The brunette lets out a chuckle, serving herself after her girlfriend. “You could’ve been more gallant and served me one plate.” She teases, sitting on a stool at Elyza’s side, not missing the look that her mother gives her. The blonde muffles something like ‘sorry’ and takes a mouthful of her slice of bread.

 

Travis sips on his black coffee. “You should get ready after finishing your breakfast. Richard wants to show us how things work around here.” He tells them. Elyza nods and Travis points her. “I think Shawn wants you to help him out at the infirmary.”

 

“What if I want to be a part of the supply runs?” She wonders, getting up to open the fridge and serve herself some juice – not forgetting to make one for Alicia.

 

“You can always talk about that with him and Richard, but… I doubt that this is a choice.”

 

Being forced to work with Shawn? No way, that is not one thing Elyza wants. He might be a great guy and he was fun to talk with the previous night, but she knows how Alicia feels about him and she doesn’t want to make her more jealous. “I hope that you’re kidding, Travis.” Even if she is good at helping people and making stiches, she doesn’t have the right formation for anything else. All she has is her mother’s knowledge. Elyza isn’t the kind of person that wants to have someone’s life between her hands – she could deal with walkers without a problem, but not with the human being.

 

Alicia sees her stepfather shrugging. She looks at her mother, sipping silently her glass of juice. She doesn’t know what task she’ll do in the community. She doesn’t have skills like Elyza’s and she’s pretty sure that they consider her just as a teenager.

 

“Hurry up, Alicia.” Madison says. “Richard’s going to be there in five minutes.”

 

* * *

 

Richard gives them a more official tour of the place, introducing them to people that weren’t at the party. Most of them are there, the only exception being Daniel – he claimed to need more sleep because his injury was still very painful, but everyone knows she’s not there just because he don’t want to be there. It’s him; he doesn’t really trust anyone outside their group. It took a hell of a time for him to finally see Elyza as a member of their group and some sort of a younger leader.

 

There were tables spread on Richard’s front yard and he motions them to sit. Nick awkwardly sits at Ofelia’s side, giving her a glance, then lowering his head like nothing happened there. Alicia wants to shake her head, because her brother wasn’t really subtle at all.

 

“Okay.” Richard clears his throat. “We need to discuss of how you can contribute to our community.” It’s the part that Elyza wasn’t looking forward. “There are many tasks around. First, we have the fence patrol. There are always three of us watching; one for the front gate, another to watch the area behind Hillrise and the other will be walking around to see if there is anything suspicious. The persons on guard duty can always decide between them who stays mobile and who moves.”

 

“We can alternate?” Travis asks, bringing his hands together in front of him, elbows resting on the table.

 

“We sure can.” Richard smiles and continues. “Then we have the supply group. Unfortunately, everyone has to go on supply run, except the kids and the elders.”

 

Ofelia nods. “That’s a necessity.” She points out.

 

Richard crosses his hands on his chest. “Exactly, otherwise everyone would stay safe behind the walls and we’ll soon be starving. This is another task some of us need to fulfill; the rations. We have to make sure that no one eats more than another. We need to share everything we have with the others. It can’t be everyone for themselves.”

 

“Is there other tasks?” Elyza asks, looking at the swarthy and beefy man.

 

“There are a few others.” He says, letting out a sigh. “There will be the infirmary, of course. We would like you to assist Shawn, because we he saw the good work you did with Daniel’s stiches and he wants to see what you’re capable of.”

 

“What if she doesn’t want?” Alicia retorts, a hint of defiance in her voice.

 

Richard looks surprised by the brunette’s reaction. “We don’t have anyone else that knows how to do stiches. He’s the only nurse here. If something happens in the middle of the night or in the middle of the day, he’s obligated to help.” He explains to her. “And if he gets hurt in the middle of a supply run and dies, he didn’t train anyone.”

 

“I’d prefer to be with the supply run teams, in fact.” Elyza confesses. “It’s a lot of responsibilities… so, let me think about that, okay?”

 

“Take your time.”

 

“Where do you keep all your guns?” Nick asks.

 

“Our people thinks it’s easier to fight the dead ones if we keep a firearm constantly with us. The only persons that aren’t allowed to have a gun are the families with children, but the adult can always get a weapon once they’re outside their house. We have an armory in the same building that the infirmary.” Richard waits a few seconds before he continues. “Someone has the duty to protect it. It’s an important tasks and you guys will understand if we won’t allow you near it for a moment. You are still allowed to keep your weapons on yourselves, but the armory will be under our protection until we see that you are making your part in the community.”

 

Travis looks at Richard. “We understand this.”

 

“Those tasks are our main concern right now. We need to be always aware of our surroundings, not only for dead ones but for people.” He tells them. “We are well established here and everyone here already knows that there are risks that other survivors try to steal or kill us.”

 

Madison gives him a worried look. “Did you have any bad encounters before?”

 

“Not that I could consider bad. If they see how well equipped we are to face our current situation, they eventually come around the idea of staying with us.”

 

“That is very dangerous.” Nick points out. “You could’ve put yourself in danger.”

 

“Do you mean that we should regret bringing you here?” Richard asks in a very serious tone.

 

“No! No, dude. It’s just that I think that you shouldn’t let people in just like that. Without asking any questions.” He shrugs. “What if they bring problems?”

 

“I hope they don’t.” He smiles at Nick and Elyza can feel the warning in his tone. She certainly doesn’t want to know how Richard gets rid of people causing problems to his community.


	26. Chapter 26

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's a short chapter, but I'm really tired, I had a (another) crappy week. Monday I have one exam and then Thursday I have two more... so I will post one more chapter tomorrow or Sunday, but they'll be the last one I will post before next weekend - otherwise I wouldn't focus on studying. 
> 
> Next chapter's going to be longer, I promise. Hope you'll still like this one.

In other words, Richard doesn’t give them a lot of options. They could either guard the fence, make food rations for everyone or be on the supply run teams – though everyone knows that they’ll end up outside the community’s walls once in a while. Alicia feels like her hands are tied. She knows that Elyza wants to be a part of the supply run teams and it makes her re-think her decision. She wanted to make rations with Nick, but she doesn’t see herself standing in front of a food pile and distribute cans and crackers. She knows that it’s going to bore her – as strange as it can be, with the world they live in. But, foremost, she knows that she’ll feel guilty of not going out there with her girlfriend and protecting her. She wasn’t a _coward_ and never been one.

 

When it’s time to pick up their task, she still doesn’t know what her answer will be. She has to give Richard her answer, because it’s important to start making their place in the community and help. She doesn’t know, but she doesn’t want _anyone_ to decide for herself. She grits her teeth together nervously and feels Elyza’s gaze on her.

 

Richard starts to ask the members of her group their decision. The adults starts to answer first. Madison and Travis decided to be on the fence duty. Daniel, who had been injured before getting to Hillrise, isn’t there; he’s recovering and Richard agreed to let him rest before assigning him to a task. Nick tells him that he wants to be on the food rationing team and the military man agrees.

 

What surprises Alicia is Ofelia’s answer. “I want to work at the infirmary.” Shawn, who joined them to hear the discussion, quirks his eyebrows, interested. His brother looks equally surprised and gives the Salvadoran woman a smile. “What? You asked for Elyza, but she doesn’t want to work there.”

 

Even if she didn’t have any medical skills at all, if she wanted to work with Shawn in the infirmary, he better let her. She’s always have been a fast learner and their group – both Richard and hers – could benefit from another ‘nurse’. “Are you sure?” The military nurse asks her.

 

“I am.” Ofelia answers, confidence in her voice. “Richard said it earlier: you could use someone else helping in the infirmary.”

 

Shawn didn’t want to turn her down, so he nods and says: “I’m fine with this. I’ll let you know when you start tomorrow.”

 

Everyone’s eyes turn towards Alicia and Elyza for their answer. The blonde is quick to share her decision to Richard. “I want to be on the supply run team… but I can help with the infirmary if needed, but just if it’s really an emergency.”

 

“Okay, good.” The tall dark-skinned man tells her. “What about you, Alicia?”

 

She feels her mother’s eyes on her and she internally starts freaking out, because she still haven’t made up her mind about this stupid decision. “I, uh…” She bites her lower lip and looks down. “I’ll go with Elyza.” She blurts out, without thinking twice. Madison clenches her jaw, unhappy with her daughter’s words.

 

Richard examines her silently for a moment and, just as he was about to ask her something, Madison cuts him. “You’re not going out there without Travis or me.”

 

Alicia doesn’t like it when her mother speaks to her on _that tone_ , like she’s just a harmless and defenseless child. No, she is strong and she proved herself, in many occasions, how well she could handle fighting the walkers and getting out of a really bad situation or position. The brunette looks at her mother and scowls. “I can speak for myself.”

 

“You’re not old enough to make decisions like this one!” Madison scolds her. “You’re doing this just so you can be with _her_.”

 

Oh no, they were not having this conversation in front of everyone. Alicia stands up and starts walking in direction of their new home. Yes, she might have made her decision because of her concerns for Elyza; she didn’t want her girlfriend to get hurt and never come back to her. Madison is quick on her feet and grabs her wrist, stopping her. They were only at a few meters from their group.

 

“This is _foolish_ to go out there like this, Alicia.” She tries to resonate her, lowering her voice. “Let the others do it, please.”

 

Alicia takes a deep breath, not wanting to roll her eyes at her mother. She is deeply annoyed by this display. “I know the risks, Mom.” She tells her, furrowing her brows. “We don’t have a choice, sooner or later we’ll have to get out there.” She waits a few more seconds before continuing. “I promise we’ll be very careful.”

 

“Elyza is not good for you, she’ll get you killed…” Madison continues, lowering her voice.

 

She can’t believe her mother was trying to blame this on her girlfriend. “Enough with your homophobic nonsense!” Alicia snaps. She had fooled herself if she thought that Madison was slowly beginning to accept her relationship with Elyza. She meets blue concerned eyes and feels the tears prickling in her eyes.

 

Madison swallows and adverts her gaze. “You don’t understand, it’s not because of _that_ …”

 

“Because of _that_ what, Mom?” She growls, taking a step back. “Can you even realise how bad you make me feel because you don’t acknowledge that I have _feelings_ for her?” Alicia doesn’t know if her mother’s face is red from rage of embarrassment. Probably both. “We’re living in this shithole and all you can think of is who I’m in love with?” She scoffs.

 

Alicia is fulminating of rage and Madison lets out a shaky breath. “I don’t want you out there because I know you’ll save her at the cost of your life.” She lowers her gaze.

 

“That’s a shitty excuse.” The brunette says, crossing her arms on her chest. “I’m seventeen and I’ve been through more in four months than any teenager would have. I can handle myself out there. You won’t be always there to protect me.”

 

Madison nods silently and doesn’t answer for a few more seconds, still not looking at her daughter in the eyes. “I’m sorry, Alicia.” She bites her lower lip. “I know that I haven’t been a good parental figure lately… It’s just… with Chris and…”

 

Chris’s death was still very fresh in her mind and this reminder made it a lot more painful. “Mom, hey.” She tilts her head to the side. “This has nothing to do with him…”

 

“Yes it does.” Alicia sees her mother fighting against the tears. “We couldn’t save him… and I don’t want you to die, I don’t want you to get hurt…”

 

“Madison.” Travis intervene. “Alicia is smart and you have to let her take her own decisions.” He puta hand on her shoulder and she swallows with difficulty, as her fiancé continues. “What happened to Chris… it could’ve happened to anyone else.” Alicia could see that speaking about his son was still difficult for her stepfather.

 

“Travis is right.” The brunette looks at her mother. “I’ll be careful.”

 

Madison wipes a tear on the corner of her eye with her thumb. “Okay… and I’m sorry about the whole thing, I didn’t mean to make you feel like this.”

 

“I’m happy with her, you realise that? It feels good to know someone cares about you and fights for you.” Alicia points out. “And if I decide to put my life in danger for her, it’s because she’s worth it more than a thousand times.”

 

* * *

 

After Alicia got into a fight with her mother, she decided to go back to her room to be alone for a little while. She is glad that Madison finally recognize how her reactions made her feel bad about her relationship with Elyza, but she also feels very exhausted – from the fight and her early… activities with her girlfriend.

 

Even though she could use a nap right there, when she lays in the bed, blanket covering her up her neck, she can’t close an eye. All she could think of is the fight and that Elyza had probably heard everything that she said to her mother. Did she really said that she had feelings for the blonde? Yes, they were officially together, but they never told each other _I love you_. In the first place, Alicia never thought that she would have been able to love again after losing Matt. But then, out of literally nowhere, Elyza comes at her rescue and it makes her rethink about her sexuality. They’re living the freaking apocalypse itself… maybe Alicia thought that revealing to the blonde that she had feelings for her, that she is _in love_ with her, would jinx them. With their luck, one of them could get seriously injured or even die. Alicia didn’t want to think about that anymore.

 

Someone knocks at the door and the brunette muffles a groan at the disturbance. It opens and she looks up to see her brother sneaking in their room. He wears a grin on his lips as he approaches the bed, sitting on the edge of it.

 

“Hey, what’s up little sister?” He asks her, their gaze locking.

 

She huffs and props herself on her elbows and quirks one of her brows at him. “You heard our fight, you should already know.”

 

Nick shakes his head. “Of course I’ve heard… everyone did.” He gulps down and Alicia knows that the fight probably made a few of the group uncomfortable, including him. “I just wanted to know how you were feeling after that.”

 

Alicia shrugs. “I’m fine, I think… thanks.”

 

“Good.” He waits for a few seconds and puts a hand on her leg reassuringly. “I’m proud of you. For holding your grudges, I mean.”

 

“Well, you know me.”

 

Nick smiles at her again. “You’re right, but I mean it. Mom wasn’t right to treat you like she did and… I wouldn’t have been capable of doing the same with her.”

 

Alicia gives him a small smile back and continues: “Thank you Nick, it means a lot.” She lets out a sigh. “I couldn’t let her control my love life…” She waits a moment and she decides to deviate the subject. “… speaking of love life, would you care explaining to me why you picked up that box of condoms in the convenience store?”

 

“Uh…” He gulps nervously.

 

“Come on, I’m not gonna judge you. I just want to know.”

 

He adverts his gaze for a few seconds. “Ofelia and I… we got a little bit closer.”

 

“I’ve noticed.” Alicia smirks, moving into a sitting position on the bed. “Well, no really, but I thought about it and figure that you wouldn’t have picked condoms just for fun – even if they would be very useful, you know, to collect water.” She lets out a soft chuckle. “So… how close?”

 

“We kissed…”

 

“And you thought necessary to pick up condoms after kissing the girl?”

 

He tilts his head and scowls. “Okay, maybe there was a little more than kissing, but you’re my little sister, I don’t want to tell you too much details…”

 

Alicia scoffs. “I would have asked Ofelia then or Elyza would have. So, tell me big brother, is she girlfriend material?”

 

Nick rolls his eyes. “I don’t know… it’s not something I’ve thought about.” He looks at his sister and asks: “What about you and blondie?”

 

“We’re together.”

 

“Good. I’m happy for you, sis.”

 

“You better be, because I’m really happy right now.”

 

“Wait, does this mean –” He points the bed and grimaces. “I’m never going to sleep in this bed again.”

 

Alicia lets out a small laugh, trying to stop herself from blushing.

 

 


	27. Chapter 27

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Since I won't post another chapter until next weekend, this one is very long. It's 6.7k words, so yeah. Also, I reached the 100k words and I'm very happy about it, but now I have to focus on the three exams that I have this week and the paper that is due for Friday. 
> 
> Thank you all for the support, comments, kudos and bookmarks are very appreciated. 
> 
> There's mature content in this chapter.

It has been a full week since Alicia’s group arrived to Hillrise. Everyone is still getting accustomed to each other and their new home – even though the brunette still has a hard time thinking that the place is really their _home_ now. It feels too good to be true.

 

She and Elyza couldn’t spend a lot of time alone together, because duties come first in the community and when they can finally rest, they’re too tired. The blonde prefers, for Madison’s comfort, to sleep on the couch, which leaves Alicia to sleep alone in her bed, because Nick still refuses to sleep in it after her sister shared it with her girlfriend.

 

Richard, who is in charge to assign everyone for the supply runs, didn’t send them outside their walls for the first week. He prefers to let them rest a little, since Elyza was still sore from her injuries. Her neck wound was healing correctly, though she was sure that she’ll have a very large scar. Her cut wasn’t deep enough to need stitches, thankfully, but since they didn’t have any butterfly stitches to avoid a bad scarring.

 

People of their new community keep asking them how they survived for so long outside a safe place. They want to know more about what happened to them. Everyone knows that they lost someone in the last few weeks and that it’s still hard to talk about him – Travis can barely sleep because he keeps thinking about Chris whenever it’s time to go to bed for the night. Elyza doesn’t open much to them; she has a hard time considering them like her people. For her, there was Travis’s group and Richard’s group. She doesn’t like that they try to know everything about her – her life before the apocalypse, her family, why she was alone before meeting Alicia and if she killed anyone. Elyza answers either that it’s none of their concern or that she did the things she needed to do to survive. She doesn’t elaborate much. Alicia shares a little bit more, but nothing very private about her life.

 

Madison finally came around the idea that her daughter has a girlfriend. They had a few pretty serious conversations about Alicia’s sexuality, which always ended by the brunette saying that she wasn’t bisexual or lesbian – that the only girl she ever wanted to be with is Elyza. It’s still confusing her mother a lot, because, for her, there’s only a few labels; straight, bisexual or homosexual. Alicia knows that it would take Madison a moment before understanding that she’s queer – or, an easier way to put it, questioning.

 

Everyone in Alicia’s group is very understanding towards her relationship with Elyza. Even Daniel, which still surprise both of them; he’s a religious man and comes from Salvador, a place which Alicia thinks it’s not very open towards same sex couples. She expected him to judge them a little, but he doesn’t seem to be bothered at all – he’s still recovering from his injury slowly and takes seriously his new duty to be on the fence patrol.

 

Richard had asked Alicia and Elyza to come by his place in the afternoon to talk about the next supply run. He wanted to make sure the younger women were ready to go outside without either Travis, Madison or Daniel. It’s a thing that the leader of the community wants to make clear; he can’t have people that are scared of walkers out there. He needs people that are careful and won’t go nuts if they’re in a bad situation.

 

The younger women knock at the door and wait for someone to come and open up. Alicia would probably lie if she’d say she wasn’t nervous at all to go out there, but it’s not because of the walkers or anything… she is more concerned about how they do things outside the community’s walls. So far, Travis’s techniques were good: knocking on a door to draw the walkers outside of the houses, taking care of them and then looking inside, in a team of two, to see if there was anything dead or alive that could threaten their life. They’ve never had any problems with this technique before.

 

Alejandra, the Hispanic woman that was driving the truck when they met Richard’s group on the road, opens the door, greeting them with a smile on her lips. She wears a black tank top, khakis pants and a belt with a holster attached to it. Elyza notices it because the older woman puts a hand on it, before giving them a nod of her chin to mention that they could get inside the house. It’s not a threat, more like a natural movement.

 

“Richard’s waiting for you.” She tells them. “Follow me.”

 

Elyza thought that the leader of the community would have waited for them in the living room or the kitchen, but Alejandra leads them to the basement of the house – which Alicia definitely thinks is creepy. The Hispanic woman pushes a door on the right side of the stairs and they enter the room. Richard is sitting at a desk with maps in front of him, studying them silently until he notices them, turning his head. A smile appears on his lips as he stands up.

 

“Alicia, Elyza, thanks for coming.” He waits a few seconds, then his gaze locks with Alejandra. “Where is Damian?”

 

She shrugs. “Last time I saw him, he was hanging out with Shawn and Ofelia in the infirmary. Want me to go and him?”

 

“Please. He’s going with us tomorrow and I want him to assist our little meeting.” The swarthy man explains. Alejandra nods and she leaves the room quickly after, leaving Alicia and Elyza temporarily alone with Richard. He looks at them and points towards the chair in the room. “You two can sit, we’ll be in here for a little while – don’t worry, I just want to talk with you before tomorrow.”

 

His reassuring tone makes Alicia a little less nervous, knowing that she could probably share her insecurities with him when the time comes. Elyza takes a seat to the chair and Alicia imitates her a moment after.

 

“So… is this, like, your office?” The blonde asks him.

 

“Yeah, it is.” He smiles at her and sits at his desk. “Here I have the plans of the area we’ve searched and ransacked already.” He points the maps and takes a deep breath. “I’ve also marked the places where we encountered large groups of undead.”

 

“You’re planning all of this?” Alicia quirks her brows, surprised.

 

He nods. “I am, the last thing I want is one of my people getting killed because of a bad planning.”

 

“If someone gets killed, it might not be your fault.” Elyza tells him. “You can’t control those things, especially not with all the dangers outside the walls.”

 

“I know that, but if being a little more organized with the supply runs can prevent deaths, then I’ll do it.” He let lets a sigh and continues. “I will not send you out there if you don’t know the areas you’re going to explore. You need to know well your surroundings, that’s why I asked you to come here: because I want you to know how to get back to Hillrise if things goes south.”

 

A little organisation could only be good in a world like theirs, Alicia recognises that. “Will you explain us how you proceed on the supply runs?”

 

He looks at the younger brunette. “I will, as soon as Damian arrives. There are things I want to specify in front of him, because sometimes he doesn’t listen to me.”

 

“If he doesn’t listen to you, isn’t it a little risky, then?” Elyza asks, crossing her arms on her chest. Having someone – another teenager – not listening to orders… she didn’t want that. Not if it could put them in danger.

 

Richards tilts his head a little bit on the side. “Maybe, but he had been out there since the beginning with his family and he only wants to find his Dad. He’s a great kid and always come back with more supplies than anyone here.”

 

“His dad is out there?” The blonde bites her lower lips, thinking about her parents and little brother. She didn’t allow herself to think about them for a while, but now that she was asking for Damian’s father, she couldn’t help it.

 

“He had been for a few weeks now… we didn’t have the choice but separate, as we were surrounded by walkers.” He explains. “I was with Damian when it happened and I had to force him to follow me – we barely made out of the building we were searching.” He waits a few seconds, looking at Elyza. “Dead or alive, he wants to find him.”

 

“And I will.” A voice interrupts them. Three heads turns to look at the young black man. Richards offers him a smile as he decides to sit against the wall, all the chairs being occupied. “Why do you want me here, Rich?”

 

The cold tone doesn’t go unnoticed by Alica and Elyza and they give a quick glace towards Richard, who sits straighter and clenches his jaw. “I need to remind you of a few rules before we leave tomorrow.”

 

“I don’t need to follow your stupid rules.” He groans in exasperation.

 

The leader remains impassible. “Look, your dad is still out there and I really want you to find him – I want to find him too.” He puts his elbows on the desk, leaning a little bit on it. “But he’s not the only one that needs to be found. If you keep trying to find him by yourself, you’re going to get you killed, or one of us, and I can’t allow that.”

 

Damian looks at him with a hint of defiance in his eyes. “You can’t always have an eye on me and those two.” He says, pointing out Alicia and Elyza, who are remaining silent, listening to the exchange.

 

“Come on Dam. You can’t make mistakes like those.”

 

“I won’t, why don’t you just leave me alone?”

 

Richard pinches his lips. “You’re one of our best supply runners. And it doesn’t bother me if you’re looking for your Dad while gathering supplies, but we need to get the job done otherwise we’ll starve in here. We’re a larger group now, we have more people to feed.”

 

“Then you shouldn’t have taken more people in, Rich.” Damian spits out. “We were already struggling with food.”

 

“We’re not like that! We help those in need, we help each other. There’s only a few of us that remains.” He continues, pointing on his desk, trying to prove his point – which was a very good point, actually. “It doesn’t matter if we keep taking people in.”

 

“Then I’m leaving and I’ll find my Dad on my own.”

 

Richard rolls his eyes at Damian’s words. “What if he makes his way back here?”

 

The younger man scoffs and gets up. “You know there’s almost no chances he’s alive and trying to get back here…”

 

“He’s been out there for a month, you don’t know that.”

 

“A month is a long time to be out there.” Elyza states, looking at Damian. “But Richard’s right, if your Dad comes back here and you’re gone, what do you think he’ll do?”

 

“What if he’s dead already?” He gulps down and shakes his head. “I can’t stay here longer, I need to look out for him. If he’s dead or alive… I just want to find him.”

 

Richard nods. “Tomorrow… after the supply run…”

 

“I won’t come back with you.” He points out, then gets out of the room.

 

* * *

 

After Daniel left them, they stayed in the basement for a few more hours to talk about preparation for the next supply run. Alicia was reassured by Richard that they never get inside a house or a building without trying to get the walkers out of it beforehand and that they were never letting anyone explore alone.

 

They were about to finish their meeting when Alejandra came back to talk with Richard. Alicia and Elyza gives him a look to know if they needed to get out and leave them alone, but Alejandra didn’t seem to care about their presence.

 

“I want to go with you tomorrow.”

 

Richard’s gaze is on her and he looks uncertain. “Are you sure?”

 

“You need another member for the supply run. You need me.” She tells him, crossing her hands on her chest. Alicia suspects that something happened to Alejandra on a previous supply run, for Richard to be this reluctant towards her offer.

 

“You didn’t answer my question.” He points out, his voice serious.

 

“I’m sure, Rich.”

 

He lets out a deep sigh. “Listen, I don’t want you to feel forced to go out there. If you’re not ready, I would understand that.”

 

“What, you think I’m going to screw up?”

 

“No, it’s not what I said.” He rolls his eyes. “The last supply run was great, it went according to the plan, but you know that plans don’t last long if something comes up and I wouldn’t forgive myself if you get injured because I allowed you to come with us.” He waits a moment before continuing. “Damian’s not coming back with us.”

 

“I know that… we can’t keep him around if he wants to leave to find his father.”

 

“Okay… Tomorrow, it’s you, Elyza, Alicia and me, then.” Richard tells them all. “And Bandit.”

 

“He’s coming with us?” Alicia almost squeals of excitement – she really likes the dog, what?

 

“Of course, I never go outside the walls without him.” He smiles at them. “He’s a good hunter, sometimes he catches bunnies or other small animals… and he always has our back.”

 

Alejandra puts a hand on Richard’s shoulder. “This dog probably saved your ass more times than I did.” She offers him an amused smirk.

 

“Yeah, yeah…” He shakes his head, putting a hand on hers, over his shoulder. Elyza never noticed how close they were with each other before then. This wasn’t just a casual touch, at least that’s not how she interpreted it. The swarthy man clears his throat. “I’ll fill you in with the details later tonight.” He points his chin towards the two younger women and smiles. “You two should go and get some rest. Tomorrow we’re leaving at 7 a.m. sharp. Be sure to eat and do your business before leaving, because we won’t stop for nothing.”

 

“Understood, Richard.” Elyza tells him with a serious voice that almost makes Alicia cracks a smile.

 

“Thank you.” Alicia gives him a timid smile, slipping her hand in Elyza’s, tugging her towards the stairs.

 

“Oh and girls?” He asks them. The girls turn their head to give him their complete attention. “Don’t make me wait tomorrow.”

 

“Okay.” They both answer at the same time.

 

* * *

 

It’s around thirty passed five in the morning when Elyza wakes up, a little bit sore from sleeping on the uncomfortable couch for over a week. She mentally swears at herself because she could use the sleep, but she just can’t close her eyes anymore. She waits five more minutes before getting up to do her usual morning routine. She takes a quick shower and gets out after putting fresh clothes on herself.

 

She walks to Alicia’s room and pushes the door, her head peaking to see if she was still asleep. It doesn’t surprise her to hear the soft adorable snores. She smiles, getting inside of the room without a noise. The blonde closes the door and makes her way to the bed, slipping underneath the blankets to press her body against her girlfriends.

 

Alicia stirs and lets out a sigh, feeling Elyza’s lips pressing against her shoulder and making wet noises as they pull apart, only to move higher. “Good morning.” The brunette says with a raspy voice.

 

Her girlfriend lets out a low chuckle as she slips her hand underneath Alicia’s shirt, on her front, to caress the expanse of skin right above her navel. “ _Beautiful_ morning.” Elyza presses her lips on Alicia’s cheek and gives her a smile.

 

“What time is it?”

 

Elyza nuzzles her nose against her girlfriend’s jaw and answers. “It’s almost six… sorry for waking you up this early.”

 

“S’fine.” She slurs. “I was waking up at six anyways.”

 

Soon, they would have to start preparing themselves for the supply run with Richard, Alejandra and Bandit, but now they could enjoy being together, just lying in bed. Alicia moves from her position to lay on her back and Elyza swings a leg and pushes her body over her girlfriends.

 

“What are you doing?” Alicia wonders as she feels the blonde’s hands moving to gently cup her breasts and massage them – it’s not that she didn’t like it, it’s just that they’ll have to get out of bed soon and she doesn’t want to be late to meet Richard.

 

Elyza lowers her head to steal a long and desperate kiss from her girlfriend. “I want to feel you.” She tells her, moving her mouth to her neck again.

 

“Okay.” She agrees, enjoying the blonde’s hands massaging her. “But we don’t have long, so don’t tease me.” Alicia really liked taking her time with Elyza, when they made love a week before. They didn’t have the time to get intimate this way again and this was probably one of the reasons why she didn’t want her girlfriend to tease her – she is horny and admits it to herself.

 

She hears the sigh of protest as Elyza looks up at her and pouts. “But I like taking my time.”

 

“I know babe, but we have to meet Richard at 7 a.m. _sharp_.” She gasps when she feels Elyza’s hands moving south, cupping her center over the sweatpants she used as pyjamas, a cocky smirk on her lips as she hears Alicia swears under her breath.  

 

“This feels good?” Alicia lets out a breathy chuckle and nods. The brunette closes her eyes and can’t help but buckle her hips against Elyza’s hands as she starts rubbing over her clit. “Tell me, baby, do you like this?”

 

“Fuck, yes, yes I do.”

 

Alicia moves her hands to her girlfriend’s back, clawing at her t-shirt, focusing on not letting out the moan that threatens to slip out. “Fuck, you’re beautiful.” Elyza blurts out, kissing her collar bone, while one of her hands still plays with Alicia’s breasts.

 

She doesn’t tease like that for a long time; Elyza quickly slips her hand under the waistband of the brunette’s panties, brushing that little patch of hair as she moves lower to find the moisture of Alicia’s center. She is _soaked_. Elyza runs a finger over Alicia’s entrance, her smirk widening at the whimper and another buckle of her hips. “Very eager, I see…”

 

The blonde starts stroking up and down, grazing her clit and then her entrance again. She can tell, by the squirming and little whimpers that Alicia is unable to supress, that she really likes it. “Do you want to feel my fingers inside you?” She manages to croak out a ‘yes’ and throws her head back on her pillow.

 

Elyza slips teasingly her middle finger a little bit inside of Alicia, stroking the smooth skin there, and removes it, only to push it inside completely. The brunette lets out a hum of contentment as her girlfriend starts slowly thrusting, feeling her inner walls clenching around the single digit driving her crazy. “Oh god.” She gasps, a hot wave of pleasure coursing through her body as Elyza curls her fingers inside her.

 

“You’re already close, am I right?” Alicia opens her mouth to answer, but she doesn’t trust herself to answer verbally right now. She only nods and Elyza smirks at her. “Spread your legs, baby.” Alicia obliges and her girlfriend removes her finger, moving up to circle her clit. She swears she sees stars, because she is already worked up and the pressure building in her lower stomach threatens to release at any moment.

 

Alicia feels a hand cupping her face, thumb brushing gently on her red tinted cheeks. Her skin feels so warm under Elyza’s touches. She turns her head and takes her girlfriend’s thumb in her mouth, opening her eyes to see her reaction.

 

She takes pleasure in sucking her thumb, seeing as Elyza’s lips parts to let out a shaky breath, just before slipping another finger inside of her. Alicia’s teeth graze on her skin and then it’s her tongue licking it gently. The blonde wishes for a moment to a have an extra appendage, to see how Alicia’s mouth would work on it, but she reminds herself that she’s very content with her own body already. Alicia moans louder and Elyza kisses her to stop her from stopping her from letting out more sounds of pleasure.

 

A few moments later, when a thumb brushes her clit, Alicia reaches her climax and buries her face in Elyza’s neck, biting her bottom lip. Her body squirms involuntarily as her girlfriend keeps thrusting her fingers inside her, though slowing the pace to help her to come off her orgasm. It was better than the first time they made love.

 

She lets out a low chuckle, feeling Elyza circling her clit again, though with very light touches. “You’re quite talented with your fingers…” She tells her, a smile creeping up on her lips.

 

The blonde smirks and quirks her eyebrows. “You should see what I’m capable of with my mouth…” Alicia’s mouth waters at her girlfriend’s word as she imagines her between her legs, doing ungodly things to her.

 

She pushes the blonde to be on her back and smiles. “That’s for another time, now I need to take care of you…” She winks, caressing the blonde’s thigh, moving her hands towards her nether regions.

 

Elyza takes the said hand into hers and shakes her head. “We don’t really have time for that… and I’m on my periods.”

 

“Sadly.” She presses her mouth against Elyza’s for a few seconds and look at her. “I wanted to make you come as hard as you made me…”

 

“Stop torturing me, cheekbones…” She bites her lower lip. “You should go and take a shower.”

 

“It’s sad, you could have taken one with me.” Alicia retorts.

 

Elyza shakes her head. “I doubt that your mother would be very happy if she ever catches us sharing a shower.” She smiles and steals another kiss from her girlfriend. “Go now or we’ll be late.”

 

Alicia shakes her head. “No, I have to wait a moment… my legs feel like jelly.”

 

* * *

 

She really needed that shower, after what Elyza did to her that morning. She came downstairs to eat cereals and drink juice and found out that everyone – yeah, even Nick – was in the living room waiting for her to join them. Her first thought was to think that they probably hear her having sex with Elyza and she keeps a straight face when she sits at her girlfriend’s sides on the couch.

 

Alicia knows that her mother is worrying about her going on her first supply run. She can feel her anxiousness in the air and she knows it’s going to be hard to leave them behind for a moment.

 

“Can you both promise us something?” Travis asks them, his gaze travelling from Alicia’s eyes to Elyza’s, who nod in agreement. “Be safe out there, please. We know that someone has to go on the supply runs with them, but you never know…”

 

“Richard is great, really.” Madison tells them, nodding. “But Damian and Alejandra… we don’t know them.”

 

“I heard that Damian’s not coming back from the supply run. Is this true?” Daniel asks them with a serious tone. It had been one of the gossip going around the community since the last evening.

 

Elyza lets out a sigh. “The kid wants to find his Dad, but there’s no chances that he finds him… it’s been a while since they got separated on a run, he’s just holding on to the last bits of hope he has to find him, dead or alive.”

 

“Then he’s the one you have to worry about.” The Salvadoran man tells her. “Don’t trust him, he can put you all in trouble.”

 

It was something that Elyza thought about. If Damian was truly on the lasts bits of hopes to find his father, he could do something desperate and get them killed. That isn’t a thing that she would let him do – he was free to leave Hillrise, to die if he even wanted to, but he couldn’t bring anyone down with him. She wouldn’t let him touch a hair from Alicia.

 

“We’ll be careful, okay?” The brunette tells their group. “Plus, Richard knows what he’s doing.”

 

“Okay then.” Travis looks at his stepdaughter and offer her a smile.

 

“Anyone has special requests?” Elyza asks. “Like for food, clothes… movies?” Now that they had electricity, they could have movie nights because the TVs and DVD players were functioning.

 

“Maybe new clothes?” Ofelia proposes. “Mine either have holes in them or blood stains…”

 

“Clothes, got it.” The blonde winks at her friend and waits for any other request.

 

“I think that’ll be all.” Alicia tells her, when she hears nobody answers. “We gotta go now… we’ll be back soon.” She says, looking at her mother to reassure her.

 

Madison walks to her daughter and pulls her into a tight hug. Alicia makes it last longer and her mother’s gaze locks with Elyza’s, giving her a half-smile. The younger blonde knows that her girlfriend's mother was secretly asking her to keep an eye on Alicia, which she intended to do in any cases.

 

They all tell each other goodbye, sharing a few hugs and wishing Elyza and Alicia good luck with their supply run with Richard, Alejandra and Damian. The two young women get out of the house, knowing that it would be soon 7 a.m. and they needed to meet their supply run team. The cool air hits them and Alicia suppresses a grunt, wishing that the sun would rise up soon and warm the air. Elyza adjusts her backpack on her shoulder and tends her hand for Alicia to take. The brunette gives her a small smile, sliding her fingers between hers.

 

Richard is waiting on his veranda with the two other members of their team. Alejandra and Damian look like Richard just pulled them out of bed, the first one munching on a granola bar and the other resting his head against the wooden fence of the veranda.

 

“Perfect timing.” Richard greets them with a smile and gets up, keys in hands. Their truck is parked in front of his house.

 

“Good morning.” Elyza and Alicia say to everyone, as they all get to their feet to move towards the truck.

 

“Morning.” Alejandra mumbles, as she passes them, to get in the driver’s seat.

 

The younger blonde smirks at her girlfriend. They were not morning persons at all and Richard definitely seems to be enjoying putting them through this torture. “Where are we going today?” Alicia asks.

 

“We’re going east, actually. In the direction we found you on the road – we haven’t explored this area yet.” Richard explains, getting on the front passenger’s seat. Damian decides to be in the backseat, which doesn’t leave them a lot of options as to where to sit. “You guys will be sitting in the pick-up box, is that okay?”

 

“Isn’t that going to be a little uncomfortable?” Elyza wonders, looking at him as he closes the door of his vehicle.

 

“And cold?” Alicia adds.

 

Richard shrugs. “I made a bench so people in the box can sit, it’s less rough on the ass when Alejandra can’t avoid potholes or an undead.”

 

“I heard that, dumbass.” The Hispanic woman tells him with a grumpy face, making the beefy man smile widely.

 

“It’s going to warm up soon.” He tells them, pointing the back of his truck. “In the meantime, just cuddle or something.” His words make Alicia blush a little and they move to the back of the truck, lowering the tailgate. “Just let the tailgate down a little, I’m going to call Bandit.” Richard whistles.

 

Elyza helps Alicia getting in the pick-up’s box and she jumps in it in her turn. They wait a few more seconds before seeing Bandit, in the middle of the road, running towards them with his tongue out of his mouth. Richard once told them that he was letting is dog outside his house because Shawn couldn’t tolerate him because of allergies. He just let Bandit wander freely inside the community’s walls – everyone likes him. Actually, he seems more like everyone’s dog, not just Richard’s.

 

After pulling up the tailgate, Elyza comes to sit at her girlfriend’s sides. When she see her chin quivering because of the cold air, she decides to remove her leather jacket and put it around her, a smile on her lips.

 

“Everyone ready?” Alejandra asks them, looking in the rear view mirror. They both manifest their approval and she starts the engine.

 

Bandit comes to sit at Alicia’s feet, nuzzling his muzzle against her legs to have her attention. She can’t help but smile at him and scratches the back of his ears, earning a soft whine in return. The German shepherd is really the sweetest dog she ever came across in her life.

 

* * *

 

They’ve been on the road for about two hours when Alejandra decides that it’s time for them to take a break and stretch their legs a little. It’s a good thing because Elyza can’t feel her butt anymore, because the truck vibrates so much that it’s not even funny. Now she gets why nobody ever wants to sit on the back of pick-ups. She lets out a sigh of relief as she pulls down the tailgate and jumps on the asphalted road. They stopped close to a small town.

 

Richards hops out of the truck and stretches, letting out grunt. He looks around and takes out his knife. “Okay, let me refresh your memory and remind you of our plan.” He lets out a sigh and turns on himself, peering at the forest behind them, trying to see if there was any walkers coming for them. “We hide the pick-up in the forest and they we continue on foot.”

 

Damian throws his head backwards and lets out a sigh of exasperation. “Come on, man… we’re always on foot. It’s harder to get back to the truck and take off if something happens.”

 

“Are you defying my orders, Dam?” The older man asks, frowning. “Anyways, it’s not like you’re coming back with us… you don’t have to whine about having to walk a little.”

 

Damian’s gaze lowers and he nods. “Right.”

 

He doesn’t seem like a guy that wants to leave his people anymore. Maybe the scene yesterday was only to prove a point to Richard that they should look out for his father more. Bandit lets out a soft bark and his owner turns on himself. “There’s only one undead.” He turns his head towards Alicia and points the walker coming in their way, shuffling and groaning. “You take care of it.”

 

Alicia knows that Richard only asked to kill the walker to see how she can deal with it. To make sure that she wouldn’t be scared or ask for someone else to do it. Luckily, it wasn’t Alicia’s first walker kill and she wasn’t scared of it. She nods at him and walk rapidly towards the walker, noticing another one coming for her. Elyza notices it too and surges forward, taking out her hunting knife.

 

The two lifeless bodies fall on the ground practically at the same time and the young women look at each other, a smirk on their lips. It was their first walker encounter in a week and they were happy that they still could take care of them without almost any effort – though it’s easier to kill them when they’re alone or a few of them.

 

“That was impressive.” Richard agrees, sending them a thumbs up. “Now we know that you don’t flinch under the pressure and that you’re not scared of those abominations.”

 

Elyza shrugs. “When they’re alone, they’re not really a problem.” She tells him, crouching to wipe her knife on the walker’s clothes. Alicia imitates her and the blonde continues. “When there’s a group of them, that’s different… they might be slow and stupid but, if we get cornered, that’s when people usually does stupid stuff because they’re scared.”

 

Alicia pokes her girlfriend in the ribs, making her squeal at the touch – Elyza is really, really a ticklish girl. “Come on, when we met, you save my ass twice in only one day.”

 

“I couldn’t let walkers eat your pretty face, darling.”

 

Richard looks at them with a smile on her lips. “Enough, lovebirds.” Both girls blush at the term and they walk towards him, Alejandra and Damian. “Let’s focus on the plan.”

 

He explains to the group that they would first search a few houses, taking food, clothes and other necessary items. If they find something interesting that’s too hard to carry for the rest of the day, they would let it on the side of the route and pick it up later in the day, before going back to Hillrise. Everyone agrees that they’ll stop around noon to eat and rest for a moment, then continue ransacking places.

 

Alejandra reminds them to only use their guns only in last resort. Everyone was carrying one; Alejandra, Damian and Alicia has pistols, while Elyza has her beloved shotgun and Richard an automatic rifle. “We don’t have a lot of ammunitions right now.”

 

Damian rolls his eyes. “Dude, its America. There’s guns and ammos literally everywhere.” He looks at Alejandra, offering her a forced smile. “We shouldn’t worry about this right now, we should look out for our people and for food.”

 

Richard really seems annoyed by the younger black man’s words. “Smart people hid their firearms in a safe-deposit box, gun storage or hid them somewhere no one would look for them.” He clears his throat. “This _was_ America. Now, it’s nothing. It’s abandoned houses and buildings and dead people trying to kill us.”

 

“You think I don’t see that?”

 

Alicia, Elyza and Alejandra look at each other with pinched lips. They didn’t like that the two man were fighting over those matters in the middle of the road. Richard straightens his back and take a step towards Damian. “You may know things about walkers, but as soon as we leave for Hillrise and we leave you here… you will realise things and be terrified of being _alone_.”

 

The younger man gulps down with difficulty. “I just want to find my Dad, Rich… I would have preferred to have your help, but if it comes to that…”

 

“I told you, you’re welcome to stay with us.” Richard points out. “But stop being a jerk with us, we’re offering you a home and people that care for you. You’re not a kid anymore, you’re an adult and should act like one.”

 

“I’m just sixteen.”

 

“That’s a lame excuse, buddy.”

 

Damian nods at his friend. “Yeah… sorry for being an ass.”

 

“It’s okay, just don’t do it again, please.”

 

* * *

 

Walking in the middle of the road draws too much the walker’s attention, therefore Richard makes them walk in the woods. Alejandra complains a little about it and, gladly, Damian keeps his mouth shut and follows the leader of their group. Elyza thinks that it’s a good idea, though it slows their pace a little and they won’t cover as much ground as Richard wanted to.

 

Every time they see a walker, they have to take care of it. They don’t want them notice one of them and start walking towards in their direction. If the walker goes unnoticed, it could easily bite of them and that would be a very unpleasant surprise.

 

They searched a dozen of houses before noon and Alicia is impressed of how well everything is going – though she shouldn’t be too enthusiast about this. They’re still in danger of stumbling on a horde of walkers, since they’re close to a town, even a small one. Everyone’s backpack is getting heavier, but it’s not enough to carry everything. Elyza doesn’t like the additional weight on her shoulder, knowing that it would slow her if anything would attack her from her back.

 

Like they agreed to, they stop when they realise what time it is. Alicia is thankful for the break Richard allows them to have. Her stomach is getting painful because she’s hungry and she really needs to use the bathroom – she wouldn’t do it in the forest, in case a walker would have surprised her with her pants down… not a scene that she liked to picture.

 

After she is relieved from the pain in her bladder and that she ate a good meal, she decides to explore the house with Elyza, to see if there’s something interesting underneath beds or inside shoe boxes in the closet – you never know what you can find inside those.

 

She was also looking forward to be alone with her girlfriend, especially since they had to get out of bed in the morning after Elyza made her driving up the walls. When the blonde pushes the master bedroom’s door, she slowly approaches her from behind and press her front against her back, wrapping her hands around her middle. “I wanted to tell you…” Her head rests against Elyza’s shoulder blades. “This morning, I really liked to wake up in your arms.”

 

“I loved to wake you up… especially like this.” Her girlfriend says with a husky voice.

 

“You know that my Mom wouldn’t really make a scene if you’d share the bed with me.” Alicia nudges the blonde’s back with her nose.

 

“I just want to respect everyone in the house.” She explains. “Because I know that I would always be down to wake you this way.”

 

Alicia lets out a chuckle. “You definitely have the soul of a horny teenage boy.”

 

“Can’t blame me for that, my girlfriend is the hottest girl in town.”

 

“Flattering.” The brunette says, moving to press her front against Elyza’s, who has a smug smirk on her lips. “But you know that I’m probably one of the only girls _alive_ in like a ten miles radius?”

 

“I only have eyes for you, Alicia Clark.” Elyza plants a kiss on her girlfriend’s lips.

 

Alicia’s hands move to the back of Elyza’s head as she deepens the kiss. She feels the blonde’s nimble fingers grasping her ass and that only when she notices that her hands moved there. She lets out a moan and gently tugs at her girlfriend’s bottom lip with her teeth, sucking gently afterwards to soothe the bite.

 

Elyza removes her hands from Alicia’s butt and cups her face as she offers her a tender kiss, smiling as she thinks that this brunette makes her the happiest girl in the world. Alicia feels her smiling into the kiss and she pulls back, looking at deep blue eyes. “What are you thinking about, beautiful?”

 

She licks her lip and presses her forehead against Alicia’s. “That, even with the outbreak, right now… you’re the second happiest thing that happened in my life.”

 

“What’s the first?” Alicia wonders, touched that Elyza was opening up with her about how she feels.

 

“When I held Trevor for the first time.” She bites her lips and closes her eyes. “He was so small and calm… when he looked up to me, he wrapped his hands around one of my fingers and let out a squeal.” She sighs. “I miss him.”

 

“I know.” Alicia tells her, wrapping her arms around her neck and bringing her into a tight hug.

 

She fights the tears and buries her face in her girlfriend’s neck. “I don’t know what I would do without you…”

 

“ _Elyza, I love you._ ”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Feel free to talk to me on Tumblr @thesilversouls. I take request for this fanfic, so don't be shy guys, even if it's for more smutty scenes.
> 
> xox


	28. Chapter 28

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the shortest chapter that I've done so far. Trust me when I say that I needed this chapter more and couldn't wait to start writing again. I'm sorry that it's so short, but I think it's definitely worth it. 
> 
> Exams are done, I just need to get one paper done for tomorrow and my term will be over. I'll start to update regularly again.

The four words are resonating in their minds. “ _Elyza, I love you._ ” This sounds like a promise, yet Alicia’s voice shows that she is insecure. Not because she fears that Elyza doesn’t love her back, because she clearly does. What is she afraid of? Everything. Because sometimes, in a world like theirs, death is unavoidable. It’s around a corner, under a car, behind a door and it’s waiting patiently to get them. It’s unfair how things work now and Alicia hates to think that maybe, someday, she’ll have to face her lover’s death and turn the page. She said those words without thinking first, but they are very meaningful to her. Does she regret confessing her love? Absolutely not. Elyza deserves all the love in the world.

 

Elyza understands the fear that resonates through her girlfriend’s voice, like she had been meaning for so long to tell her that she’s in love, but couldn’t find the strength or right moment to say it out loud. She keeps pressing her face in Alicia’s neck, appreciating the comfort of the hug – talking about feelings had never really been her thing, especially when it came to her little brother. Elyza fights the tears that threaten to fall on her cheeks and she takes a deep breath.

 

She lets out a wet and low chuckle and press her lips against Alicia’s throat in a chase kiss. “No, I love you more.” She feels Alicia’s chest rising up and down, merely stopping herself from starting to laugh. The brunette stops herself from rolling her eyes at her girlfriend, because she knows that Elyza isn’t a fan of speaking about her emotions. She’s not serious, but Alicia knows that they love each other deeply. She doesn’t need the words to acknowledge that.

 

They keep hugging each other tightly for a long moment. Elyza finds herself not wanting to break the embrace, because it’s comforting and she always loved to have a beautiful girl’s arms wrapped around her.

 

Alicia sighs and kiss the blonde’s forehead. “Promise me one thing.” Elyza finally pulls her head from Alicia’s neck to look at her, quirking her eyebrows in a silent question. “Whatever happens out there… promise me that you won’t let me go.”

 

“Never.” She breathes out, biting her lower lip. “I could never do that.”

 

Simply thinking about getting separated because of walkers makes her stomach churn. If anyone would have told Elyza that she would find the love of her life in the middle of a zombie apocalypse, and that it would be a beautiful young woman that knows how to take her breath away with one single laugh, she would tell that person that she’s crazy. Elyza knows that she doesn’t deserve Alicia, because she is so pure and unaware of all the things she had to do to survive this world.

 

“And I mean it… I love you.” Elyza smirks and steals a quick kiss. “It’s just bizarre saying it out loud.”

 

Alicia nods in agreement. “I was afraid to tell you.”

 

Elyza frowns in confusion, because her girlfriend looks somehow guilty and it intrigues her. “Why? Were you afraid that I would not said it back?”

 

“No, it’s not…” She gives the blonde a smile that is meant to be reassuring. “… with our situation, I thought that telling you how much I love you would… I don’t know, screw things up or jinx it.” She lets out a breath and closes her eyes for a second. “Everything has been fine so far in Hillrise and I don’t want to think that coming here, on this supply run, was a bad idea… and I hate to think that anything could happen to us and I could lose you forever.”

 

“Trust me, you’ll have time to get tired of my sweet ass before anything bad happens to me.”

 

Alicia snorts. “I don’t think I’ll ever get enough of you.” She lowers one of her hand and grabs one of her girlfriend’s butt cheek. “Especially not of that.”

 

Elyza smirks. “Who’s the horndog now?”

 

* * *

 

They don’t have time to make out in an abandoned house in the middle of the freaking apocalypse. They have to move forward and collect more supplies. It’s only around 13 o’clock, but Alicia knows that they need to get back to Hillrise before dark, preferably with all the supplies they gathered. Plus, she doesn’t want Alejandra, Damian or Richard coming into the room to her and Elyza heavily making out – it’s not really the right place nor right moment to enjoy the lust. It takes them a moment to convince themselves to stop kissing each other, but, when they do, they get back to searching the room, which was their first intention when they came in. Now that it is established – they love each other – they can get back to the rest of their group.

 

Richard seems to know notice Elyza’s dishevelled hair, but doesn’t point it out to them. Damian and Alejandra are already putting their backpack on their shoulders, ready to get out of the house. They probably heard them confess their love, because the walls are paper thin when there’s no other sounds in the area, but they keep quiet about it, just like Richard.

 

He looks at Elyza and Alicia and smiles at them. “We’re about to take off. Found anything interesting?”

 

The blonde shrugs. “Not really.”

 

“Okay then, let’s head out. Remember, we keep going east. We’ll get closer to the town, so we’ll have to be careful with the roamers.” Richard says, taking out his knife. Damian mutters something that is merely comprehensible, but Alicia thinks it’s about know recognizing where east is from north, south or west. She doesn’t know that either and bets that Alejandra and Elyza are relying on him for the directions too.

 

“Why are we getting closer if we know it’s more dangerous, Rich?” Alejandra asks him, giving him a cold look.

 

He sighs. “We need fresher clothes… and I doubt that we’ll find a lot of them in abandoned houses.”

 

Damian makes his way in the hallway, followed by the rest of their group. “There are clothes, we shouldn’t be picky.”

 

Elyza rolls her eyes, smirking and glancing at her girlfriend. “Dude, as much as I love the pair of jeans I wear, I’m not against finding a new one. Plus, we get to wear whatever we want… so if I want to look hot and fight walkers wearing Versace pants, I’ll fight do it.”

 

“You don’t need Versace pants to look hot.” Alicia murmurs, after leaning closer to the blonde so only her can hear what she says. It’s probably the first time she ever seen Elyza blush and she feels victorious.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comment are always appreciated! xox


	29. Chapter 29

Their goal is very simple; get inside a small clothes shop not too deep in the city, take various clothes and possibly find another backpack to carry all these new items. It wouldn’t be very convenient to transport, but it is their only choice so far. Then, they would need to get out of the place quickly before any walkers nearby notices them. The group keeps walking into the woods, moving slowly, trying to be aware of any threats.

 

They’re getting closer to the town and it makes Alicia a little more nervous than she usually is when they’re out to gather supplies. Since they got off Strand’s ship, she doesn’t really like to walk around the places known to draw more walkers – it’s less common to come across one of them in the middle of nowhere. Elyza feels her girlfriend’s anxiousness and offers her a reassuring smile, aching to reach for her hands, but she abstains herself, not wanting to make anyone uncomfortable or paying less attention to their surroundings.

 

The group takes care of a dozen of walkers on their way to the clothes shop. They’re alone, all wandering aimlessly and easy to kill. They prefer to take them down, even if the walkers don’t see them, because if anything would happen, they wouldn’t have to take care of them and it can also be how they can find their way back.

 

The blonde takes the lead when they arrive in front of the building, her grip tightening on her hunting knife. Even if Elyza only wants to gather all their supplies and walk all the way back to their truck. But first, they still need to explore the place and make sure it’s fine and safe to navigate around.

 

Alicia looks at Richard and asks quietly: “Do we get inside by the front door?”

 

“Where else do you want to enter?” Alejandra answers instead, smirking.

 

She rolls her eyes at the Hispanic woman and decides that she doesn’t like her. Not only because she’s making fun of her, but she seems too fine to be out there. Like she has nothing left to lose. Alejandra isn’t even bothered by the presence of a few walkers around them and acts like it’s a chore her mother ordered her, to take care of them. Alicia wonders how a guy like Richard can get along just fine with her – in a relationship, the brunette is pretty sure that Alejandra would wear the pants.

 

The tall swarthy man presses his lips together but Alicia sees that he’s trying to remain serious. “Backdoors are usually locked, so we’re going by the front door.” He answers.

 

Elyza glances at Alicia and shrugs, understanding that her girlfriend didn’t really like the older woman’s teasing. There’s nothing that she can do, not wanting to create tensions in their group. Damian remains quiet as he walks towards the front door.

 

“How do we proceed?” The blonde asks, turning to face them and walking backwards – which is a reckless move, but Alicia allows it because she is watching Elyza closely. “We usually make a sound to draw the walkers outside the building and then sweep around to take care of the others stuck inside.”

 

“We don’t know how many there is inside.” Damian points out.

 

Elyza smiles at him. “You’re right, we don’t know that, but I’d rather find out outside instead of inside. Less surprises, because we will be ready.”

 

“We usually get inside and then make noise. We kill roamers and then get ourselves to work.” Richard explains. “But your technique seems fine too.”

 

“Our technique allows us not to smell them, so that’s a better one.” Alicia says. “We’ve been in a lot of houses and, believe me, when we kill a walker, it’s better to do it outside.”

 

“We’ll use it, then.” He tells her, pointing at the door. “You now have the honor to knock on the door, milady.”

 

It doesn’t bother Alicia to do it, so she just nods her approval. Elyza looks at her and sends her a wink, turning around to walk normally. The brunette doesn’t want her girlfriend getting killed by a walker because she is walking backwards. She is relieved that she’s finally watching where she steps and if there is any threats for their life nearby.

 

Alicia slowly makes her way to the front door, her girlfriend at her sides. They wipe off the dust on the glass and give a good look inside, waiting a moment to see if there was any movement. Alicia practically jumps three feet in the air when a walker presses its face in the glass, trying to bite her through it. Elyza lets out a giggle and presses puts her weight against the door, seeing another walker coming to crash against it in a mere attempt to attack them.

She slaps Elyza’s shoulder when she keeps laughing at her. “Shut up, you.” Which earns a smile from the three others. Bandit, who’s patiently waiting at his master’s feet, lets out a low threatening growl when he sees the walkers.

 

Richard doesn’t want to wait too long in front of the building. “Okay, let’s take care of em’ and then get inside. Elyza, open the door.”

 

“Let me get one, okay?” The blonde asks.

 

He nods his approval and she takes a few steps on the side of the building, letting the two walkers pushing the door open. It doesn’t take long before they come stumbling in their direction, letting out low guttural growls. Elyza smirks and prepares herself for her next move. She swings her right leg and kicks the second infected on a knee, while Richard takes care of the first one. It makes a terrible cracking sound as the walker starts to fall face first onto the ground. Alicia rolls her eyes because her girlfriend seems to enjoy this way too much, when she buries her hunting knife in the back of the walker’s skull.

 

“There you go – oh, behind you guys!” Elyza says, seeing three walkers getting closer.

 

Alicia turns on herself and sticks her knife in the eye of the closest undead, while Damian and Alejandra take care of the others. They struggle a little bit, but soon the bodies are slumping on the ground with an audible thump. They all clean their weapons on the clothes of their victims – no one wants their handle to be slippery because of walkers’ blood.

 

“Well done.” Richard tells them. “Now, we get inside and sweep the place. Don’t forget the changing rooms.”

 

“Mate, I say twenty bucks that I find at least one there.” The blonde looks Richard, smirking.

 

* * *

 

Richard loses the bet when Elyza finds two walkers in the women’s changing room. Since they don’t use money anymore, the blonde decides to get something out of it, but he just shakes his head with a smirk on his lips. Other than the two walkers inside the changing room, they find one with broken legs in the back of the store and that’s all they needed to take care of. Damian found a sports bag large enough to contain a lot of clothes.

 

“You know, it’s pretty sad that these women died in the changing rooms, like… hey, there’s infected humans trying to eat you alive, don’t you have something else to do rather than shopping for clothes?” Elyza rambles, while taking different sizes of t-shirts.

 

Alicia glances at her and bites her bottom lip; it’s cute when her girlfriend starts to ramble, because she doesn’t want the place to be creepily silent. The brunette takes one t-shirt and almost coughs with the dust spreading around her when she unfolds it. There is dust on pretty much everything in the store and it was crystal clear that no one set a foot in there – well, except for the walkers. It still smells like death, but it was a smell that Alicia had to get used to while fighting walkers and exploring abandoned places.

 

“… I just think that we’re very lucky, I don’t see myself dying in a place like this… well, I don’t see myself dying at all, but if–”

 

“Elyza, you should focus on finding clothes.” Alicia tells her.

 

The blonde quirks her eyebrows in protest. “I am totally focused.”

 

“So that’s why you’ve been folding and unfolding the same t-shirt for the past minute?” The brunette smirks, drawing an exaggerated eye roll from her girlfriend. “I’m just teasing you, babe.”

 

“I’m sorry, it’s just weird to think about stuff like this…”

 

“Hey, you don’t have to be sorry. If anything, I found this pretty cute.”

 

She gets closer to Elyza, her smirk turning into a wide smile. Her girlfriend scowls and shakes her head. “I am not _cute_.” She specifies. “I am badass.” Alicia gives a quick glance to the rest of their group and returns her attention at the blonde, who is still looking at her intensely, but her lips brought into a pout.

 

“You once gave me a candy for a peace offering, if I remember correctly.” The brunette pecks her girlfriend’s perfect jaw and continues. “That is _cute_ and very far from badass.”

 

“It was _once_.”

 

“Still.”

 

“I hate you.” Elyza mumbles, not meaning the words, pulling back from Alicia’s arms. “Jerk.”

 

Alicia is quicker than her and wraps her hands around her girlfriend’s neck, closing the gap between their faces. She brings their lips into a tender kiss, which definitely takes the blonde by surprises. It takes a long second before her mind registers that Alicia is kissing her and they’re not alone. It’s only Richard, Alejandra and Damian, but one of them could still be homophobic or just stupid.

 

“I love you.” She whispers against Elyza’s soft pink lips.

 

“I love you too.”

 

* * *

 

It takes them fifteen more minutes to gather enough clean clothes – or just clothes that aren’t completely covered by dust – before Richard tells them that they need to leave, if they all wanted to make it to the community before the sun settles. Needless to say that everyone gathers their supplies, eager to get back home.

 

Alicia thinks it’s weird that she already sees Hillrise as her new home, especially when she lived on Strand’s boat for longer and never really felt at home there. The reason behind it was probably because she knew they wouldn’t stay long on the ship and with Victor. Madison and Daniel never really got along well with him. Strand saw their group more like another unwanted weight on his shoulders and always reminded them that it was a privilege to be on board with him. Alicia’s group helped him and he wanted to return the favor. She would have declined his invitation for the boat if she knew that he wouldn’t offer his help to anyone but them until they reached a safe place – first in San Francisco, then in Baha, but they couldn’t even make it out far from California without good fuel for the boat and detritus getting caught in the ship’s filtration system.

 

At Hillrise, it’s different. It feels like home, because the others are very welcoming towards her group and, even if she didn’t really made friends there yet, she’s not against walking around in a community with more humans than walkers. The thing that changes everything; she has Elyza with her now. Maybe that’s the reason why she feels like she’s at home.

 

They prepare themselves and then Richard pushes slowly the glass front door, looking around to see if there’s any walkers that aimlessly walked in their direction. There’s a few and, when they exit the building, they don’t even see them move.

 

“Do we need to take care of them?” Damian asks with a low voice, pointing at the walkers.

 

Alicia sees the hesitation in Richard’s eyes, knowing that he should kill them before they kill anyone in their group. “No, not this time, we have to move.” He lets out a sigh. “We still need to be careful, just in case they see us.”

 

“I can take care of them if you want.” Elyza proposes, not liking the idea of letting walkers not permanently killed behind them. “It won’t take long.”

 

Richard pinches his lips and shakes his head negatively. “You’d have to walk about 250 meters… if a horde sees you or us, we’ll need to run for our lives and you only studied the map for fifteen minutes with me. You don’t know the area well enough.” Elyza nods but thinks it’s still a very stupid idea. If anything was going to happen because of those walkers that they left behind, she would blame Richard for taking this decision – if he’s still alive. He sees in Elyza’s eyes that she won’t protest and continues. “We go now, we walk and we don’t stop until we get to the cars.”

 

It’s a long walk and Alica and Elyza were prepared for it. Richard told them the evening before that they would walk a lot during their supply runs. It’s not something that particularly pleases them, but they want to get back to Hillrise as soon as they can.

 

“We’re taking the road this time, it’ll be faster.” Richard says and no one argues on this decision.

 

They all seem tired of walking in the middle of the woods; it’s slower and draws less attention on them, but it’s also harder to escape if anything goes bad. The couple experienced it once when they were with Jordan and his friends, right after the car accident. Elyza had been the slowest member of them all, because she was asleep when it happened and the seatbelt hurt her like hell. If it wasn’t from Travis’s help, she would have probably caught her feet between roots and fell face first in the dirt; the walkers would have gotten to her quickly. She prefers much more to walk on the asphalted route.

 

The supplies Alicia is carrying is slowing her more than she expected. She is exhausted to carry the backpack, but knows that she can’t ask anyone else to carry it for her. They’re all having backpacks and Richard is also taking care of the bag of clothes, sometimes alternating with Damian. The only lucky one is Bandit, who doesn’t have anything to carry at all.

 

Walking back to their car was supposed to take around 30 minutes, but it takes them almost an hour. It’s not only because of the additional weight on their shoulders, it’s because of the infected drawn to them and making their walk a little more difficult. They come across cars and they don’t even want to search inside them to see if there’s anything good for them, only killing the walkers that dare try to grab their arms across the broken windows.

 

Alicia never even sweat that much when she was in her gym class, in high school, and she can’t wait to get under the cold jet of the shower head. Her hair is plastered to her forehead and, when she glances at Elyza, she finds her in the same state, beads of sweat covering her face and the exposed flesh of her cleavage. It she wouldn’t have to look around for any possible threats, Alicia is very sure that she’d let her eyes linger on the glistening skin and think of pressing open-mouthed kisses against it. Not that she isn’t thinking about it now… but that’s a small detail.

 

“Here we are.” Alejandra breathes out, wiping the sweat on her temple with her hand. “We just need to follow the trail and the pick-up is there.”

 

They turn on their right in the said trail and Bandit sprints in the trail. “He’s a very good scout.” Elyza tells Richard, a smile on her lips.

 

“That he is. We’re lucky to have him.” He nods. The blonde can remember Richard telling her and the rest of her group that he saved his ass many times. They walk silently a good five minutes until they see their pick-up. The dog lets out a little whine, eager to get inside of the vehicle too. “We load our stuff in the pick-up’s box and then we go off.”

 

Everyone lets out a sigh of agreement and proceed to load their supplies in the pick-up box. Elyza hops on the tailgate and helps Alicia, offering her a hand. Damian looks at them and says: “You know, if you want, I can sit in the back and you can sit inside the truck.”

 

The blonde smiles at him and shake her head negatively. “No need to do that. I think we’ll be just fine in the box.”

 

“Are you sure?” He asks.

 

Alicia is the one to answer the next. “Yeah, I’m too tired and I just want to sit for a while, it doesn’t matter where.”

 

“Okay then.” He smiles and gets in the backseat of the truck with Bandit this time, leaving the couple alone.

 

Alicia looks at her girlfriend for a few seconds before she leans her head against her shoulder. “You can sleep a little if you want. If there’s anything, I’ll wake you up.” By the time Elyza finishes saying those words, the brunette is already soundly asleep against her and it makes her heart flutter in her chest, thinking that she is lucky to have her.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I finished my term and now I'm working full-time. I know I said I would start updating regularly, but some friends of mine are in town and I couldn't miss spending a little bit of time with them. I also went out Friday and drink... so yeah. I will start updating regularly this week.


	30. Chapter 30

Elyza can’t find the willingness to wake up Alicia. Her girlfriend is sleeping, letting out soft snores and holding on to her arm like it’s a life buoy. It doesn’t bother the blonde at all and she can’t help but watches her sleep. They’ll be in the truck for about two hours, therefore Alicia will get plenty of rest. Elyza won’t, but she prefers to be alert while Alejandra drives their vehicle. It’s not that she doesn’t trust her. Anything can happen and they could need to jump off the truck. Madison is a good driver and they still had the car accident because of Jordan.

 

Bandit is snuggled at their feet. He is a very calm dog and Elyza appreciates that trait. She wouldn’t have been happy if she had to take care of him while Richard is sitting in the front passenger’s seat. Bandit is his dog, after all, and she has never been really fond of dogs. Yes, some of them are really cute, but the blonde had always been more of a cat person than a dog person. She never had the chance to own any pets, since her father and Trevor had allergies. She had a fish, but it’s not like it’s considered as a pet… right? Because you can’t really play fetch with it. Elyza scratches Bandit behind his ears and his tails wags a few times, showing his gratitude to be pet a little. At least Elyza can admit that Bandit is a cute dog. And very practical. It’s good to have him around, especially because he always notices the walkers before they do. He is a quite special dog.

 

They’ve been on the road for an hour and a half when Richard decides to make a stop on the middle of the road. “Okay, that’s our last stop.” He tells them.

 

Alicia slowly starts to wake up, opening her sleepy eyes and letting out a grunt of displeasure. She was sleeping well, even in her sitting position and face snuggled in her girlfriend’s neck. Though, she understands why they are stopping; first, to relieve their bladder or other human needs and second, to drop Damian – who had decided the day before, while they were meeting each other – to leave Hillrise to find his father. If someone would ask Alicia what she thinks about deciding to be alone in this world, she’d say it’s a stupid decision. People need to stick together as long as they can, otherwise everyone would go totally crazy.

 

All of them get out of the truck and stretch a little, their muscles sore from walking, carrying their supplies and then sitting for half an hour. Elyza can’t wait to get back to the community and sleep until the next morning. The sun is hot and already started to come down, but it’s not dark yet. They have at least one more hour of daylight, which is plenty enough to get back to Hillrise – if they don’t encounter any horde or other people. She don’t think that they’ll make it through a horde with the pick-up, especially not with them sitting in the box. Walkers don’t have the tendencies to climb, but she’s sure they would find a way to get to them if they were in that situation.

 

“I’ll stay with the truck and Damian.” Richard tells the three women.

 

Alejandra gives him a small smile and makes her way to a commercial building – there would definitely be restrooms there. The couple follow her, closely walking behind.

 

They push the door and Elyza’s face illuminates, a large grin on her lips, when she sees that they just got inside of an ice cream store. Of course, it smells horrible, because the now inexistent electricity in the world didn’t preserve the once very good desert. The blonde doesn’t care about the ice cream, though. She’s happy because there’s a place reserved for various candies, like lollipops.

 

She doesn’t bother exploring the place – it’s too small in there for any walkers to hide in a corner – and she goes straight towards the candies. Her movement earns a roll of eyes from Alejandra and Alicia notices it.

 

“Elyza loves candies.” She explains, glancing at her girlfriend.

 

Alejandra shrugs. “Whatever, I don’t care. I’ll be back in two minutes, gotta go pee.”

 

Alicia clenches her jaw at the Hispanic woman’s answer. She doesn’t know what is her problem or if she has a stick up her ass, but she won’t let her walk on her feet, especially if the reason is from a homophobic nature. She didn’t think about it before, because Alejandra could have only been grumpy from having to wake up early, but not it is clearer. It seems because of her and Elyza.

 

“What is her problem?” Elyza asks, with a candy in her mouth, glancing up at her.

 

Alicia walks towards her girlfriend, who is shoving candies in a plastic bag. “I don’t know, that’s what I was wondering.” She looks down at the bag and quirks her eyebrows. “Provisions?”

 

“Provisions.” She repeats, the smile showing up again on her lips.

 

* * *

 

After everyone did their business, it’s time for Damian and them to separate in different directions. Alicia and Elyza are not very sad about leaving him, but they think it’s a little bit reckless for him to leave Hillrise. It’s a community with walls and defended by everyone. Anyone would be stupid to leave it behind them, especially to go out and look for someone that is possibly dead already. Though, Elyza has to admit it to herself, if there was just a small chance for her parents and bother to be alive, she would probably do the same thing than him. She wouldn’t even think twice.

 

Damian looks a little bit nervous, but he holds his chin up and doesn’t adverts anyone’s gaze. The only way the rest of the group could tell that he is nervous is because he shuffles from a foot to another.

 

Putting a hand on the young man’s shoulder, Richard offers him a reassuring smile. “If you want to come back with us…” He trails.

 

Damian shakes his head negatively. “Rich, I need to do that. If not for me, at least I should do it for him.”

 

Alejandra opens the truck’s door and sit on the driver’s seat, leaving the door still open. “You know you will always be welcome, right?”

 

“I know.”

 

“Promise me one thing?” Richard removes his hand from Damian’s shoulder. “Take care of yourself, don’t do anything stupid.”

 

“You know me, Rich. I’m capable of handling things alone.”

 

“I know you can, but just stay safe.” Damian nods and wraps the older man in his arms, in a tight hug. Richard returns the embrace with a small smile and gives a gentle pat in his back. “Do you want us to drop you somewhere specific?”

 

“No, I’ll be okay from here.”

 

Elyza and Alicia, had been silent for most of the conversation, but the blonde approaches Damian, holding one of her guns in front to him. “I think you’ll need this more than I do.”

 

He looks confused for a few seconds, gazing at her. “I already have one.”

 

“One is good, two is better.” She smirks at him. “Just in case you’re in a bad situation, it’s always good to have two guns instead of one, trust me.”

 

He takes the pistol in his hands. “Thank you, Elyza.”

 

“You’ll thank me later.”

 

Alicia, not knowing what to tell him, only wishes: “Good luck, I hope that you’ll find your father.” He gives her a grateful smile.

 

Everyone, except for Damian, gets in Richard’s truck. Alicia and Elyza are still sitting in the box, but this time Bandit is on the backseat instead of with the couple. They wave at him when Alejandra starts the engine and starts to drive, putting only more and more distance between them and the former member of their community. Elyza wasn’t close to him, but she still feels this pang in her chest like she could have done something, _help_ him finding his father, because no one deserves to be completely alone in this world.

 

* * *

 

They make it back to Hillrise in twenty five minutes. Alicia is glad to be back home safe and with her girlfriend. A lot of people come to greet them, including Alicia’s family and Ofelia. When they set their feet on the ground, after the fence is closed, Alejandra, Richard, Alicia and Elyza lets out sighs of relief. The supply run was fine, not one of their best, but they gathered enough supplies to last a few more days – with new clothes, this time – and managed to come back without more than bruises and scratches.

 

When Alicia and Elyza pushes the front door, followed by Travis, Madison, Nick and Ofelia, they can’t feel anything but love and relief. Madison hated to know her daughter was out there, gathering supplies, relying on other people than her. She knew she wouldn’t have handled it well if anything would have happened to her daughter. Travis is still grieving his son, everyone can see it in his eyes, but it’s Madison who helps him the most with his loss – their loss. Even if she was only Chris’s stepmother, she had gotten closer to him after the outbreak.

 

“I’m so glad you’re home, my baby.” Madison says, surprising Alicia with a tight hug from behind.

 

The younger woman groans at the nickname, because she isn’t a baby anymore and hates it when her mother starts to act like she is. Alicia knows that it should have been hard for her to stay in safety behind the community’s walls, knowing that anything could have happened to her, but it’s not a reason to call her baby.

 

“Mom.” She whines, making a displeased face that earns a smirk from Elyza. Travis lets out a chuckle of amusement while passing at their sides, heading for the kitchen with Nick and Ofelia.

 

Madison hums, pressing a kiss on her daughter’s shoulder. “I missed you.”

 

“And I missed you too, but it’s not a reason good enough to strangle you.” She counters, wiggling out of her mother’s arms.

 

“Okay… it’s just that I’m glad you came back in one piece.” Madison continues. Elyza keeps smirking, looking at them with amused eyes. She removes the wrapping of a lollipop and shoves it in her mouth. The older woman looks back at her and nods. “Thank you for bringing her back home.”

 

“I’d say she’s the one that needs thanking, she had my back the whole time we were out there.” Elyza sends a wink at her girlfriend. “She’s of the strong ones, I can tell you that.”

 

“She is.” Madison says, glancing at her blushing daughter.

 

“Alright, I’m tired.” Alicia intervenes, not wanting her girlfriend and mother to elaborate too much on her, even if she understands that they are more at ease towards each other. Madison seemed to get along with the idea that she is dating Elyza. “I’m gonna shower and head to bed.” After the day they had, even if there wasn’t any complications during their supply run, she deserved a good shower and a long night of sleep.

 

They nod at her and she makes her way to her room to grab some clothes, her soap and shampoo.

 

* * *

 

She took a long and steaming hot shower, enough to make all the muscles in her body relax. She gets out of the bathroom with only a towel wrapped around herself, only needing to walk across the hallway to get to her room. She let her wet brown locks fall on her shoulders, still dripping of water on her.

 

She pushes the door of her room and closes it. Her eyes widen when she sees Elyza sprawled on the bed, looking at the ceiling with hooded eyes. Of course she is tired, she didn’t even sleep since the middle of the morning and now it’s around 8 o’clock in the evening.

 

Elyza wanted to wait for Alicia to come back from her shower and take one too, because she is a little bit disgusted by her clothes stained of blood and a little bit smelly because of her sweat. She’s was about to fall asleep when the brunette came into the room, wearing only a towel around herself. Her mouth waters at the sight of her girlfriend with wet hair leaving droplets on her smooth skin. It only makes her want to press her tongue against her collarbone, sucking her skin or nipping it gently.

 

Alicia eyes sparkles when she sees that Elyza’s eyes are now on her instead of the ceiling. “How are you feeling?” She asks the blonde, an innocent smile growing on her lips.

 

“Tired and my body is aching. I think that I discovered new muscles…” She lets out a chuckle. “How was your shower?”

 

“Very good, I needed that.”

 

Elyza mumbles. “I should go and take one too.”

 

“You’re tired, it can wait for tomorrow.”

 

“Yeah.” She agrees, her eyes not leaving Alicia’s body, still only covered by the towel. “Do you want me to get out while you change?”

 

She shrugs, taking clean clothes in her drawer. “It’s fine, nothing you’ve never seen after all.”

 

“I just want you to be comfortable.” Elyza explains.

 

Alicia smiles, thinking that her girlfriend is the best girlfriend in the world for wanting to make her comfortable. She puts her undies, then turns to be back to Elyza. She drops the towel and puts a t-shirt on, not bothering to put a bra on. She’s going to sleep anyways. When she turns back, Elyza’s gaze wandered to her butt and Alicia shakes her head. “Pervert.”

 

“What? You can’t blame me, I have a living goddess in front of me.” She smirks, making Alicia blush again, and then moves to a sitting position. “I’ve always been a boob person before, but now that I’ve seen your butt in lace panties… I might re-think this.”

 

The brunette shakes her head but smiles. She gets on the bed, moving to lay on her belly. “I’m tired… can we cuddle?”

 

Elyza snorts. “Of course, sweet cheeks.”

 


	31. Chapter 31

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Short chapter. Little bit of smut.

Living in a world where most of the population died and came back as walkers is hard enough. People have to fight them to survive, then fight other humans at the same time of getting enough food and water supplies to last long enough. The hardest thing in this the apocalypse? Being a woman. Menstrual cramps will not be easier on you because of it and you’ll still need to find tampons. Elyza wouldn’t complain if women’s bodies would change to give them less things to be preoccupied of.

 

The blonde wakes up early in the morning, grimacing because of the cramps. She doesn’t want to stay too long in bed, afraid that she leaked, so she moves away from Alicia carefully and gets up, heading to the bathroom quickly.

 

She does her business and comes back to the room to Alicia’s arms wrapping her pillow. Elyza smiles at the sight, approaching the bed. Her girlfriend stirs a little and opens an eye. “You were gone.”

 

“Nature called.” She explains, looking at Alicia’s pretty green eyes.

 

“Come back here.” She says, biting her lower lip. It’s an order more than a demand, one that Elyza is happy to oblige to. When she crawls on the bed and gets underneath the blankets, she presses her front against Alicia’s back, spooning her from behind. The brunette releases a soft sigh of contentment as Elyza’s hands caress the length of her arm.

 

Elyza kisses her neck and murmurs: “I’m quite surprised that your Mom let me sleep with you.”

 

Alicia hums. “We were pretty tired last night.” She feels her girlfriend nodding behind her back. “What time is it?”

 

“It’s 7:17…”

 

“And you dare waking me up?”

 

“Nuh uh.” Elyza lets out a chuckle. “You woke up because of yourself, not because of me. I did nothing.”

 

Alicia rolls her eyes. “Your side of the bed was getting cold.”

 

The blonde presses a few kisses against her girlfriend’s jaw. “I was only gone for two minutes, grumpy pants.” She says teasingly, moving her hands to Alicia’s thigh, her fingers brushing the warm skin there. She didn’t wear pants to sleep the night before and Elyza isn’t one to complain about it. “I think you’re not a morning person, babe.”

 

“I just want to enjoy sleep while I can.” She retorts, scolding, though Elyza can’t really see her face.

 

“Babe I can make you enjoy so much more…” She murmurs at Alicia’s ear with a husky voice. The younger woman lets out a shaky breath, as the hand on her thigh moves closer to her hip, then goes down. It gets closer to her center and Alicia bites her bottom lip.

 

“I have a feeling that you are a morning person.” The brunette points out, feeling her skin getting warmer under Elyza’s touches.

 

It earns a chuckles from Elyza. “Oh babe, you have no idea.” Alicia can tell that her panties are already soaked only from her girlfriend’s voice and touches from her hand and nimble fingers.

 

“… Are you still on you periods?” She questions, mirroring the blonde’s voice, closing her eyes to concentrate and appreciate the friction on her skin.

 

“Unfortunately, yes.” She gently nips Alicia’s earlobe. Her hand moves to brush her girlfriend’s center and she hears the breath intake. “Look at you, all worked up.”

 

Alicia swears under her breath and slides to lay on her back. Instantly, Elyza hovers over her with a devilish smile, fingers playing with the waistband of hers lace panties. She knows the blonde likes taking her time and teasing her, but she can feel the need building in her stomach and she doesn’t want to be teased.

 

She wraps her arms around Elyza’s neck and pull her into a heated kiss, all tongue and teeth. When their lips separate, both are left panting and wanting more. “Touch me.” Alicia murmurs, looking at her beautiful ocean blue eyes.

 

Elyza nods and slides her hand underneath her girlfriend’s panties, reaching for her warm wet center. She runs a digit between her folds, earning a strangled moan, and moves up to circle her bundle of nerves slowly. “Like that, baby?”

 

“Yes, like that.” She shudders, closing her eyes, her hips move on their own will. Elyza’s experienced fingers seem to already know what she likes or not, driving her desperate for more quickly.

 

She knows she will keep moaning if she doesn’t occupy her mouth with something and she doesn’t want to ravage the blonde’s perfect and pretty lips. Instead, she moves her head to Elyza’s neck and latches her lips at the skin, gently sucking her pulse point. Elyza seems to enjoy the attention to her neck, because she applies more pressure on her clit, making a whimper escape her mouth.

 

She wouldn’t be so turned on and close to coming undone if it wasn’t from the wet dream she had before waking up to cold sheets at her sides. “Fuck.” She swears under her breath, leaning her head against Elyza’s shoulder. “I’m gonna–” She bites her bottom lip as she feels two fingers pushing inside her, stretching her a little, sending a shiver from her head to her toes.

 

“I – I… oh my god.” Her body has a spasms as she climaxes, the tension in her stomach released.

 

Elyza keeps thrusting, though she slows her pace, helping Alicia riding out her orgasm. She kisses her forehead and smiles, evidently content that she made her girlfriend come in a matter of minutes.

 

“How are you so good at this…” Alicia mumbles almost incomprehensibly.

 

The blonde smile is replaced by a smug smirk. “I don’t have that much practice on other girls, but I can say… I know my body well and it gives me a certain idea of what you might like.”

 

When she was with Matt, Alicia and him were not speaking a lot of sex. Matt, of them two, was the shy one. They tried a few things, nothing out of the ordinary, but that was pretty much all. She liked having sex with him, but it was _nothing_ compared to the three times Elyza made her come – not to forget that Alicia also came in front of her, from her own fingers. Every time, it was mind-blowing to the point her legs feel like jelly, but she starts to think she never really touched Elyza intimately like she just did with her. “I can’t wait to touch you too.” She tells her, passing a hand in her blonde locks.

 

“It’ll have to wait and… it takes me a little while to get there, sometimes.” She adverts her gaze for a second. “Our first time, you got me very, _very_ excited.” She says, referring to the time when she was grinding hard on Alicia’s thigh and came because of the friction. Elyza wouldn’t deny it if someone asks her if she’s wet; she is, she definitely is, but her periods were making her life a living hell because she can’t have her girlfriend’s hands where she wants.

 

Alicia presses a peck on the blonde’s lips. “You’ll see that I’m a dedicated person, when I want.”

 

“I have no doubts about that.”

 

A knock resonates on the door and they both freeze. They’re not in a very compromising position – Elyza has all her clothes on her and Alicia doesn’t wear any pants but has a t-shirt long enough to cover herself until mid-thighs. The blonde presses a last kiss on her girlfriend’s lips before getting out of bed to open the door.

 

She was afraid to see Madison behind the door, but it’s Ofelia, a wide grin on her lips. “Hello lovebirds.” She tells them.

 

“Hi, O.” Alicia smiles at her friend and sits in the bed.

 

“Can I come in?”

 

“Sure.” Elyza answers, opening the door to let her friend inside of their room. She glances at Alicia and sees the pink tint on her cheeks. The brunette probably thinks that only a few minutes before, Ofelia would have interrupted their making out session.

 

Ofelia moves to sit at the edge of the bed and smiles to them. “What’s up?” Alicia asks.

 

“I want to talk with you.” She points the brunette. “We didn’t do a lot of girl-bonding time and I need that right now.”

 

“At 7:30 in the morning?” She wonders.

 

“Yeah.”

 

“Do you want me to leave or…?” Elyza looks at the Salvadoran woman with a confused look.

 

“That would be rude to kick you out of your room, so you can stay.” Ofelia says. “Okay, so I want to talk to you about Nick…”

 

“Was it about the kiss?” Alicia quirks her eyebrows, looking at her friend’s surprise on her face. “He told me the about a week ago, just after we arrived here with Rich.”

 

Ofelia blushes and lowers her gaze to the ground. “Well, uh… there’s that… but that’s not about what I want to talk with you.” She composes herself, looking at Alicia in the eyes. “He started to use again and I don’t want to tell your Mom, because I know how disappointed she’ll be and I Nick will hate me for telling her… so I’m telling you.”

 

Alicia should have seen it coming before now. She feels frustrated; knowing that now they were well established in Hillrise, Nick would probably fall back in his old patterns and start to use once again. She’s disappointed too.

 

“I’m sorry.” Ofelia insists, putting a hand on her leg, covered by the blankets.

 

“How did you find out?”

 

She lets out a sigh. “I was alone for half an hour at the infirmary, Shawn was gone to talk with someone and… Nick was kind of freaking out.”

 

Elyza gets under the covers again and snuggles up to her girlfriend. “He didn’t use for a while, am I right?”

 

“Not since…” Alicia bites her lower lip, trying to figure it out. “That time when he decided to get outside the house to get more drugs and we had to run because he dragged walkers with him.”

 

Elyza nods. “Chris was so mad at him.” _Chris_. Alicia’s eyes starts to water instantly, because she misses her stepbrother a lot. “I miss him.”

 

“We all do.” Ofelia adds.

 

* * *

 

Alicia wanted to talk with her bother after getting out of the room, but Madison, Travis and him were already gone to work, which is probably why the brunette’s mother didn’t bother waking her and Elyza up. There was only Daniel and Ofelia in the kitchen, chatting about what Shawn was teaching her in the infirmary, while the blonde was in the bathroom, taking a very well deserved shower.

 

It was the middle of the afternoon and she was about to walk up to the supply room to talk with Nick when Richard came knocking at their door, demanding for her and Elyza.

 

“There’s a horde of infected outside the fence, where we’re trying to solidify. Even if we stopped working, they make noises and they’re growing in number.” Richard explains, panic in his eyes. “We need everyone who knows how to fight.”

 

Elyza nods. “We should warn people and tell them to stay inside their houses until we clear the horde.”

 

“It’s already done.”

 

Daniel comes behind them, having heard Richard’s explanations. “I can help.”

 

“Papa, you are still weakened from your injury, you shouldn’t fight walkers.” Ofelia counters.

 

“Ofelia is right, Daniel. You can’t fight with us this time.” Elyza tells him, a serious look on her face.

 

“I’m coming with you.” Ofelia says, taking her knife with her.

 

“We need you in the infirmary.” Richard tries to reason her.

 

She scoffs. “You need your brother more than you need me.” The Salvadoran woman has a point.

 

The tall man nods. “Fine then, everyone follows me except from Daniel. And bring your guns with you, just in case.”

 


	32. Chapter 32

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi guys! Hope you'll like the chapter :)

Someone opens the fence for them and they rush out, running with their weapons in their hands. Elyza and Alicia know that they’ll have to be careful, no matter how many walkers there is out there, pushing against the fence. As soon as they’ll see them, they would focus all their attention on them and want to devour them alive, which none of them would allow something like that, of course.

 

They meet a few others, mostly the workers and the ones that were patrolling on the walls. Madison and Travis are there and greet them with worried looks. It’s sure that the older woman wasn’t glad her daughter would be a part of this dangerous task, but she understands that they’ll need to take care of the walkers before they become a threat. And they needed a lot of people for that.

 

Richard clears his throat and looks around. They would need to contour the fence quickly, because the horde of walkers is situated in the farthest part of the fence, at the extremity of their community. “We need to be quick. Alistair said that there is at least thirty walkers and they’re only growing in numbers.” He points the said man, who nods his affirmation, and Richard continues. “We’re outnumbered, but they’re slow. We need to take advantage of this.”

 

They are a small group of thirteen persons: Alicia, Elyza, Madison, Travis, Nick, Richard, Alejandra, Ofelia, Shawn and a few others that knows how to fight the walkers. Each of them are carrying weapons for safety measures and have knifes, baseball bats, hammers or others weapons of choice. Alejandra even has a machete and Elyza eyes it for a moment, wondering if it is easy to handle it and kill walkers with.

 

“We need to attack them from behind before they see us.” The swarthy man continues, looking at them. “Then, when they’ll start to turn to attack us, we’ll need to back off to an open space and wait for them.”

 

Travis speaks. “Then we start taking them down one by one?”

 

Richard nods. “Yes, we should make a line and watch each other’s back. This way it’s easier to kill the walkers without being separated. We’ll probably have to move a little, because it’ll be harder to fight with piles of bodies in front of us.”

 

“That could also slow them.” Elyza points out.

 

“I didn’t think about this, yeah… I guess we’ll see when it’ll come to that.” Richard takes a deep breath. “Try managing your energy. Let’s go.”

 

Alicia feels a rush of adrenaline in her veins, ready to fight. She’s nervous but she can’t let this emotion take over her; they need to clear the fence and take down a horde. Something they’ve never done before, because it’s better to avoid hordes than fight them. Too many walkers surrounding you could lead to your death if you don’t pay attention to what’s going on around you. Alicia only hopes that everyone will be fine, even though she knows it can all turn wrong in only just a second. Her entire family would fight the dead – because yes, she now considers Travis, Ofelia and Elyza her family too.

 

Richard starts jogging and everyone immediately follows him at the same pace. The young brunette’s muscles are still sore from the day before, since she didn’t have much time to rest. She will have to put the pain aside while fighting the walkers, because it’s only a matter of life or death. She can’t back out of this, as they need everyone capable of fighting to clear the walls. In two minutes, they’re getting to their destination, at the farthest point of the community.

 

They see them and slow down. The horde.... when Richard said that they were outnumbered, Elyza didn’t think that it would be this huge, around fifty infected. She already dealt with large hordes of walkers before, but never one like _that_. She afraid that someone will lose it and panic. She can already see some faces turning white.

 

“Didn’t you say there was thirty walkers, Alistair?” Someone asks.

 

Alistair makes a grimace and Elyza can see that he’s not afraid, he’s _terrified_. Richard answers instead of him. “They are growing in numbers.” He explains. “We need to attack now or never.”

 

Everyone nods in unison and start moving forward in one motion, not wanting to wait any longer. Elyza takes out her hunting knife, holding it with a white-knuckled grip, and starts to attack the walkers. Even if she desperately wants to, she can’t look at her girlfriend. She knows that Alicia can handle herself, but with a horde this big, she can’t help but let the fear of losing her inside her head.

 

The walkers are pushing against the fence and it does a horrible creaking sound – for a moment, everyone thinks that they’ll take it down, but it holds. They surge forward, attacking the walkers farthest to the walls, sticking their knives and hammers in their head. It makes horrible sounds along with the groaning and teeth clashing the walkers do.

 

It doesn’t take long before the horde notices their presence; fresh human meat ready to be devoured. There’s already a dozen bodies on the ground, which means a body for almost each of them. The walkers turn to face them and start moving. Some of them stumble over the dead bodies on the ground and they fall, the others not bothering walking anywhere else but on their bodies.

 

“We move now!” Richard yells and turns around, making his way to an open space. They listen and follow him without arguing. So far, everyone was fine. It’s a good thing that they are faster than the walkers, otherwise some of them would already be dead by now.

 

Elyza takes down a few walkers on the way to the open space, because she was the last one to turn and run. She hears a gunshot and everyone turns their head towards the person firing it. It’s a young woman, probably around the age of Ofelia, who had been surprised by two walkers and was struggling with it. The gunshot resonates and Elyza grimaces. _This will draw more walkers here_ , she thinks. The situation was already an emergency and now they were going to have more walkers on their hands – and they were not prepared well to handle his.

 

A few persons of their group growls and swears under their breath. “We won’t make it.” Alistair breathes out, a look of utter panic in his eyes.

 

Alicia wants to tell that everything will be fine, but a horde of thirty walkers are approaching them and she knows that more will come. They’ll have to watch both their fronts and their backs. Nothing will be fine because they’re largely outnumbered and some of them already imagine the outcome of their tricky situation. Trying to reassure them wouldn’t help.

 

Madison looks at her daughter and lets out a sigh. She mouths ‘I love you’ and Alicia smiles at her. She does the same with Nick, who has blood splattered on his face and on his clothes – like always.

 

The horde is getting too close for Elyza’s liking and she scowls. “Let’s show to these stinky bastard what we’re made of.” She mutters to herself.

 

They start fighting, trying to take down as many walkers as they can. They’re struggling, pushing them and sticking their weapons in their head. There’s another gunshot and a scream, probably from the same girl that fired a few minutes ago. Elyza and Alicia knows that they’re not doing well and there’s no chances that they make it out all alive.

 

Elyza judges that it’s a good time to start using her shotgun. Yes, it’ll probably draw more walkers to them, but they need to take care of the imminent threat in front of them: the horde. They’ll be more prepared if they take down most of it before facing incoming walkers.

 

She aims at a walker’s head, then to another and two more, before three of them get too close to her for her liking. Alicia, at her side, is already struggling with a few infected. On the other, there’s Madison doing better than most of them. Elyza growls and throw her automatic shotgun to a walker, making it fall on the ground with the impact. She hears a few other gunshots.

 

“Stop using your guns!” Richard yells in anger, sticking his hammer in a rotter’s head.

 

Elyza takes out her pistol. “We need to take down the horde NOW!” She says, as everyone takes a step back. She might have taken down at least seven more walkers since they started attacking, and the others did their damage too, but it wasn’t enough. There was probably more walkers coming for them and now they were backing up, getting closer to the fence. If they keep killing the walkers with guns, they would get cornered by them soon. She sees Alicia reaching for her gun too and they start shooting at the same time, the gunshot resonating.

 

Madison, Ofelia and Travis do the same and take down many walkers. The last one of the horde is killed by Richard with his hammer. When the body slumps on the ground with a loud thump, he turns to face the blonde with an angry scowl, about to say something.

 

“You don’t give orders here!” Alejandra growls, pointing at Elyza.

 

 “I’m sorry, did I do something to offend you or what?” Elyza snarls, looking at the Hispanic woman with cold eyes and a scowl.

 

Richard interrupts them before it gets worse. “Enough you two!” He starts walking towards them. “Elyza, she is right, you don’t give the orders. I do.”

 

“If we didn’t take down this horde as fast as we could, they would have gotten us.” She points out, still feeling her blood boiling with rage. “I did this to save everyone.”

 

“No one is hurt. We would have gotten through this just fine.” Richard continues.

 

Someone clears their throat behind them and it’s Alistair. They turn to look at him and he point towards the woman that has around Ofelia’s age. She has her hands on her knees and is looking at the ground. “She is not okay.”

 

They all can see the worry in Richard’s dark brown eyes. “What happened?”

 

Elyza’s eyes are on her, analyzing every detail, then she sees the blood dripping from her hand. She realises what it means just a second before Alistair tell them. “She was bit.” This is why they heard screaming. It was her.

 

“I’m fine.” She counters, though her voice wavers and everyone knows what she isn’t. Alicia’s eyes trail on her arm to see the nasty bite wound that a walker did to her. It looks very painful.

 

“Emma.” Richard tries to reason her. “You should go back inside and head to the infirmary.”

 

She looks up at him with eyes filled with tears. Probably from the pain, but also from the realisation that comes with it. “In a few hours or days, I’ll be dead… let me do this, for you and the ones I’ve lost.” She lets out a sob. “I want to keep fighting.”

 

He’s about to refuse when Elyza puts a hand on his shoulder reassuringly, a sorry smile on her lips. “You should let her…”

 

“Guys, there’s more coming.” Shawn says, looking at a smaller horde of walkers coming towards them. They’re a lot of space between them and it will make it easier for their group to take care of them. “Em, you can still fight with us.”

 

Emma gives him a thanking nod and Richard lets out a sigh. He can’t go against someone’s last wish, after all. He would have preferred her to rush inside the community’s walls and get checked up, but they still need anyone they can to be fighting the walkers coming.

 

Alejandra surges forward to kill the first walkers, helped by Shawn and Alistair. Elyza, as much as she wanted to help them, has to stop the bleeding from Emma’s wound for her to continue fighting. She has to make it quick because more infected are coming in their direction, drawn to them because of the several gunshots.

 

“Hey, look at me, okay?” Elyza asks Emma, giving her a smile as she removes her t-shirt. She is left in a black tank top. “I’m just going to put a makeshift bandage on your arm, that won’t take very long.”

 

The older woman looks at her as indicated. Her hands are shaking from both the pain and the fear of what was going to happen next. They hear the groaning of the incoming walkers and Elyza hurries up, tearing her shirt with her teeth. “That’s probably going to hurt, I’m gonna have to make it tight.”

 

“Just do it.” She tells her, closing her eyes for a second.

 

She whines in pain as Elyza wraps the makeshift bandage around her arm and tightens it. It makes the blonde sad to see her like that and to know that she doesn’t have much time in front of her to say her goodbyes to the people she loves. It makes her think about Jordan and she hopes that this young man made it to his house to say his final goodbyes to his father. Elyza hates to remember the saddened looks on Jordan’s friend’s faces. “There you go, all good.”

 

“Thank you.”

 

“Just be careful, okay?”

 

Emma nods and starts running, followed closely by Elyza.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There will be another part for the fighting scene. 
> 
> I would like to thank everyone for their support (comments, kudos, bookmarks, etc.), I really appreciate it. I try to do my best to thank you personally, but sometimes it just gets hard and I forget.


	33. Chapter 33

Alicia had never been this terrified before.

 

While Elyza was taking care of bandaging their wounded member, she decided to help the others to decimate the walkers coming towards them, startled by the gunshots. She was doing great, that is until a walker took her by surprise and she fell on the ground, dragging it with her, over her.

 

She hear its rotten teeth clashing together and feels the rather powerful grip on her shoulders as it leans forward, trying to bite her. Alicia’s muscles are still sore from their supply run the day before and she is exhausted. She knows she can’t last very long enough and that she needs to find a way to kill the walker, it feels nearly impossible. The way she fell on the ground, she lost her grip on her knife. To reach her pistol, she needs to push back the walker with only one hand, but she doesn’t have enough strength to do both at the same time.

 

Alicia knows that there is other rotters coming towards them and their situation is getting urgent and difficult. It’s even worse when she thinks that she is not capable of killing the walker right above her. She can feel its fingers digging in her shoulders and it hurts, because it’s using the grip to pull the brunette closer to its mouth. She lets out a whimper when she sees another infected coming her way, having noticed her presence.

 

The incoming walker is kneels before her and she feels another wave of panic taking over her. She can’t let them get her – she is not _weak_. Somehow, she manages to kick the walker’s chin with her foot and it makes the undead body fall on its back with a weird cracking noise.

 

In the meantime, the one above her got closer from a few more centimeters and she lets out a low threatening growl. She pushes with all her force, muttering a few swear words, hoping that this last effort would make a difference, even if she knows her position is really bad and she has barely no chances from getting out of it.

 

The brunette is surprised when she feel the weight of the walker disappear suddenly. She sees it falling at her sides, with a large wound in its head. She lets out a shaky breath when someone helps her to get on her feet.

 

She wants to cry when she sees Elyza’s worried face. “Are you okay?” She blonde asks, looking at her with her ocean blue eyes.

 

Alicia nods and looks over her girlfriend’s shoulder, just in time to see Emma taking care of the walker that once wanted to bite her leg. She has a makeshift bandage made from Elyza’s previous t-shirt, one that she discarded to be left in a black tank top that shows more cleavage than it should, according to her.

 

“Come on, let’s get closer to the others.” The blonde says, her eyes sweeping one last time Alicia’s body to see if she is hurt. Other than dirt, she finds only scratches and she is relieved.

 

* * *

 

There is a pile of bodies everywhere and everyone is hot and sweaty. Blood are splattered on their clothes. They took all the walkers down; it took them at least a good half an hour of fighting, but they eventually did it. Except from Emma, there seemed that no one else bitten or killed because of the walkers. Gladly.

 

No one cares about all the bodies on the ground. They’ll clean that up the next day, now they have to check injuries and get some rest after all this physical effort. Alicia is exhausted, but glad she is alive – thanks, one more time, to her girlfriend.

 

They get inside Hillrise’s walls, making sure that no lone walker followed them, and everyone starts making their way to the nursery. People hiding in their houses are getting out, curious about the fight and wanting to see their family members or friends.

 

Travis and Richard help Shawn walking; he made a wrong move while fighting a walker and fell badly. He thinks that it’s just a twist of the ankle, but it hurts and he has difficulty to walk without limping. He had a bit of luck and good reflexes, managing to kill the walker and getting up before getting bitten.

 

“Elyza, come here.” Shawn asks, as everyone gets inside the infirmary.

 

The blonde takes Alicia’s hand, dragging her girlfriend with her, looking at Shawn with exhausted eyes. “What?”

 

“Can you help us a little bit, today?” He asks with an uncertain voice. “With my ankle hurting and Ofelia exhausted… I don’t think we can help everyone before nightfall.”

 

“Sure, Shawn. Don’t worry.”

 

* * *

 

They were wrong to think that everyone was fine. Emma was suffering, but they were expecting it. When Alistair told them that his back was hurting him like hell, they thought that he fell badly or something. Elyza lifted his black shirt, covered by sweat, only to discover a small biting wound.

 

She clenches her jaw and her eyes trails on the wound. It’s clean and it looks like a walker only broke the skin without sinking its teeth all the way. With the adrenaline coursing through his veins, he probably didn’t feel the walker biting him. How does she inform him that he’s now infected and going to die? That’s not something she wants to do, even if this is she smallest walker bite she ever saw in her life. She gulps nervously.

 

“What is it?” She hears him ask, turning his head to look over his shoulder.

 

She opens her mouth and lets out a sigh. “I’m sorry… I…” She swallows another time and looks at his wife, a woman in her forties – just like him – looking back at her. She seems to understand her reticence before Alistair. “There’s a walker’s bite right under your shoulder blades.” Alicia hears her girlfriend talk and glances over her from her spot, where she is talking with Travis, Nick and her mother. Elyza continues. “I’m so sorry, Alistair…”

 

Alistair’s wife moves to give a good look at her husband’s back, eyes finding the bite wound. There are tears about to fall down on her cheeks as she touches the reddened flesh around the teeth marks. She lets out a sob and the man’s face turns white. Elyza remembers that they have one kid, seven years old, and it breaks her heart thinking about the young boy’s reaction when he learns that his daddy is going to die.

 

She needs some fresh air and gives the wife the best of her reassuring smile, putting a hand on her shoulder, before getting out of the infirmary rapidly.

 

Alicia sees her girlfriend leaving the room and gives a look to her mother, silently asking for permission. Madison nods and says: “You can go, she needs you.”

 

“Thank you Mom.” The young brunette replies, looking for Elyza.

 

It takes Alicia a good minute before figuring where her girlfriend is; sitting on a side of the building, head behind her arms. She doesn’t even react when she hears her presence, simply, staying silent.

 

She crouches in front of the blonde, putting her hands on her arms for support. It takes a moment before Elyza lifts her head to look at her with sad eyes. “I’m not okay.” She whispers, barely audible for Alicia.

 

“I know.” Her girlfriend answers, thumb brushing Elyza’s skin. “Would you let me hug you for a moment?”

 

Elyza nods and lowers her knees, opening her arms for the brunette. Alicia doesn’t hesitate before straddling her girlfriend – in a totally non-sexual way. She puts her knees on both sides of the blonde’s legs and wraps her arms around her shoulders. Elyza buries her head in Alicia’s neck, hugging her back tightly.

 

It takes a few minutes before one of them talks, because they enjoyed listening to the other’s breath and heartbeat. Alicia only wanted to give her a moment to think and figure things out, but support Elyza nonetheless.

 

“I wish I could save them.” Elyza croaks, holding back her tears. “Alistair has a kid… he doesn’t deserve this.”

 

Alicia sighs and presses her lips against the blonde’s forehead. “There’s nothing we can do…”

 

Elyza lowers her head, pressing her forehead against Alicia’s collarbone. “You could have been bitten too, if I arrived a few seconds later…”

 

“I’m not, let’s focus on that, babe.” She says, biting her lower lip. “You saved me again. I don’t know what I would have done without you. Thanks.”

 

“I wish I could have saved them too.”

 

“I know, I know… But, because of us, they’ll have time to say their goodbyes to their family and friends.” Alicia continues, trying to resonate her girlfriend. “It’s not something a lot of people can do…” _Chris_. He got sick and a few days later, the sickness took over him and he died. It happened so quickly. Alicia is sad, because they got to tell him goodbye when he was dead, but Chris never got to do it. It was already too late when they realised he was too sick and his heart stopped beating. “Alistair and Emma will get sick, but they’ll still be able to hold someone’s hand before their final breath.”

 

Elyza wipes her wet eyes on Alicia’s shoulder and sniffles. “You’re right.” She takes a deep breath. “I’m sorry for reacting like this, it’s…”

 

“It’s fine.” Alicia interrupts her girlfriend. “You’re sad, I understand that. I just want you to know that I’m here for you whenever you need me.”

 

“God, I don’t even deserve you.” The blonde mutters, tightening her arms around Alicia.

 

“And your heart is definitely too good for your own good.”

 

The blonde moves her head slowly and brings her lips against Alicia’s in a tender kiss, hands moving behind her neck. The brunette is definitely surprised, but leans into the kiss and cups her girlfriend’s face with her hands.

 

The kiss leaves them breathless. “I love you so much.” Elyza says, closing her eyes. “I thought you were already bit and I freaked out.”

 

“I wasn’t, but I have to say… my muscles were about to give up.” She her voice lowers for a second. “You arrived just in time.”

 

“I should have asked Shawn to help Emma…” She trails, opening her eyes to Alicia’s green gaze.

 

Alicia shakes her head. “But that’s not who you are.”

 

“I am no one… and your Mom would have beaten me to death if anything happened to you.”

 

“You’re not no one, I refuse to let you think this.” Alicia tells her, frowning. “You’re beautiful and you help people. That’s what you do, that’s who you are… and I love you so, so much.” Her chin quivers and she lets out a shaky breath.

 

“Thank you… and I love you too.”

 

* * *

 

“You can’t sleep.”

 

It’s a fact more than a question that leaves Alicia’s lips in the middle of the night, as she hears the steady breathing of her girlfriend. She can’t see her, because she is pressed against Elyza’s back, but she knows damn well when someone is not feeling right and can’t close their eyes. She had been in the exact same situation before, when her father died. She can’t remember how many sleepless nights she had.

 

Elyza lets out a deep sigh and turns to lay on her back, looking up at the ceiling. Alicia doesn’t waste time to slide her leg between her warm thighs, getting even closer to the blonde. She takes one of her hand in hers and the other moves to hide underneath their pillows.

 

It takes a few more seconds before her girlfriend answers. “My mind’s racing.” She simply says.

 

“What are you thinking about, beautiful?” Alicia asks, then presses her lips against the uncovered collarbone.

 

“We could have avoided all this mess…” She takes a long and deep breath. “What if there had been another way?”

 

“Elyza, you have to stop torturing yourself with that…” She tries to reassure her. “You can’t save everyone. Sometimes it’s just meant to be like this and you can’t change the way it is.”

 

The blonde bites her lower lip. “You’re right… I’m sorry if I woke you up.”

 

It’s the middle of the night, but Alicia doesn’t mind being woken up to help her girlfriend to find a little bit of sleep. “You have nothing to be sorry for.” Alicia continues, her thumb caressing gently the skin on the back of Elyza’s hand. “You should try to get some sleep.”

 

She grimaces. “I can’t close my eyes… I’m having nightmares.”

 

“Do you want to tell me about them?”

 

Elyza slightly shakes her head negatively. “Not really, it’s just something my mind made up and… yeah. It’s just stupid nightmares, nothing else.” Her voice is sleepy. “You can go back to sleep, honey, I’ll fall asleep eventually.”

 

Alicia kisses her girlfriend’s collarbone once again, appreciating the softness of the skin beneath her lips. “Can I do something to help?”

 

“Just… keep holding me, please.”

 

“Of course. And if you need to talk, just wake me up.”

 

“Will do. I love you.”

 

“I love you too.” Alicia mumbles, falling back asleep as fast as she woke up, her face buried in Elyza’s neck.

 

 


	34. Chapter 34

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think this chapter was worth the wait. For all the sinners out there.
> 
> Smut. Of course.

Alicia wakes up the next day with nothing more than a headache and her still sore muscles from both the running and the fighting done in the previous days. Needless to say that she is one exhausted young woman. She feels the sunlight hitting her face and don’t even get close to convincing herself to open her eyes, knowing that it’ll most likely feel like a laser trying to burn her retina... which is exactly what the sun actually does. Alicia lets out a small sigh and stirs a little.

 

Her few movements don’t wake up the blonde sleeping peacefully next to her. Alicia is glad that Elyza could finally get some sleep. She doesn’t know what time it is, but she figures that the sunlight hitting her face means that it’s between 8 or 11 o’clock. She knows that her girlfriend won’t be mad at her for not waking her up. Plus, she stays in bed too. They probably stink from the day before, but Alicia figures that they’ll get under the warm jet of the shower when they’ll decide to get out of the room.

 

She moves her hand a little bit and entwines it with Elyza’s, who lets out a sigh and presses her body closer to hers. Alicia loves feeling safe when her girlfriend’s arms are around her and her face pressed against her shoulders. She wishes to wake up every day like this, though she knows it’s a wish unlikely to be granted. Their life is threatened by walkers and bad people. She doubts that everything will be always okay in Hillrise; they had been lucky so far. None of Alicia and Elyza’s people died in a week. Sure, there was Emma and Alistair that were bitten, but the brunette doesn’t really consider them as a part of her group yet.

 

Alicia is still unsure of how she feels about the community, especially about the people. Most of them were nice and welcoming, but on the other hand… there’s Alejandra. Who knows if this woman has a stick up her ass. Alicia knows one thing about her; she doesn’t like her and Elyza. Whether it is because she is a homophobic person or another stupid reason, she doesn’t like them and she’s not afraid to show it. Richard, on the other hand, tries to avoid any conflict but he sure doesn’t keep, for lack of words, his woman in leash. Richard wants to stand up for his people, defend them, but he’s not strict enough according to her. He claims to accept strangers in his community, but, so far, some of the members aren’t that nice with them.

 

She clears her thought before getting angry about this whole situation. Maybe she just needs to sit down and talk with the Hispanic woman about what bothers her about Elyza and her. But, right now, all she wants to do is appreciate the way her body is molding perfectly with her girlfriend’s.

 

Wanting nothing more than to see Elyza’s morning beauty, she opens an eye to shut it the second after. She forgot about the sunlight and now she regrets it a little. She gives it another try and has to blink a few times before her vision adjusts to the light in the room.

 

“Took you a while.” Elyza mumbles, as she feels Alicia stirs again.

 

The brunette is confused; she thought her girlfriend was sleeping all this time. “You’re awake?” She asks, moving to lay on her back. Elyza nods and wraps an arm around her shoulders. “I thought you were asleep and I wanted to let you rest for a while.”

 

Elyza presses a long kiss against Alicia’s cheeks. “I’m almost always awake before you, babe.” She teases, a smirk on her lips. “It’s just hard to sleep late when you’re used to wake up in the middle of the night at the simplest sound. Can’t forget old habits.” She explains.

 

“Are you feeling better?”

 

She nods. “Yeah, sleeping helped a little. I didn’t have too many nightmares after we spoke.”

 

“Good then. We should probably get up and shower.” Alicia says, running a hand through her girlfriend’s blonde locks.

 

“Are you saying I stink?”

 

Alicia rolls her eyes. “We fought an entire horde of walkers yesterday...”

 

“Fine, you’re right.”

 

“I’m always right, Elyza.”

 

The blonde pinches her lips, repressing a smile. “You’re so full of yourself.”

 

Alicia can’t fight her smile and she closes her eyes, simply enjoying this moment. A thought crosses her head and she realises just how lucky she is that she found love in the middle of the apocalypse… and that they’re both still alive a few months after meeting each other. There’s only one last thing that she hopes; that they’ll get through all of this together.

 

* * *

 

As soon as Elyza judges that she can’t stay in bed any longer, because of her natural needs, she pecks her girlfriend on the lips before heading to the bathroom. Since it’s unoccupied, she decides that a shower will be good for her and will wake her up – she’s still sleepy a little bit. She removes her clothes, unhooks her bra and makes a pile on the ground.

 

She turns the water on to let it settle to a nice temperature and turns to look at herself in the mirror. Since it had been a little over a week that they had been in Hillrise, her black-eye started to change color. Now, it’s a little yellow-ish and Elyza figures that it’ll probably be gone before the next week. It still hurts when she touches it, but she’s capable of frowning and blinking without pain. Her neck injury is fine, where she had been cut, though it’s still a bit sensitive. She has a scar not longer than her thumb. It’s a deep shade of pink, a clear sign that it’s not completely healed. Other than that, her body has a lot of scratches and bruises, but she’s fine. The blonde is happy that she doesn’t have more injuries.

 

Elyza lets out a sigh and steps carefully under the shower jet. It’s a hot temperature, but she’ll feel better after cleaning herself if the water is hot. It helps her relax and she enjoys it a lot, because there was a time where she didn’t really have the opportunity to shower or clean herself properly. Living alone in a world where zombies are attracted to any sounds makes you rethink about your priorities. Showering, for Elyza, wasn’t really one of them. So, now that she has the privilege of having a good hot shower, she’s going to make it last.

 

Someone bangs on the door and the blonde groans in protest. “What?” She asks, her head peeking through the shower curtains to look at the door. She’ll hear more if her head isn’t directly under the shower jet.

 

“I have to pee!” Elyza recognizes her girlfriend’s voice and she rolls her eyes.

 

She carefully steps out of the shower, the ceramic tiles being slippery under her wet feet, and unlocks the door. “Just wait a minute before coming in.”

 

“Fine.” Alicia says, waiting.

 

Elyza gets in the shower again and hides herself behind the shower curtains. “Okay, come in.” She tells her. She hears the door open and close. “You couldn’t wait?”

 

“I could have, but I aslo know how long it takes for you to shower so I didn’t want to wait.” Alicia explains, pulling down her pants and panties before sitting on the toilet. She had never been shy to use the toilet with other persons in the room – with her family, it was a complete other story, but in parties girls often goes to the bathroom in groups, so she is used to it.

 

“I don’t take _that_ long.” Elyza counters.

 

“Yes you do, honey.” She hears the groan of her girlfriend and smiles. “Okay, hurry up, I have to shower too.”

 

There’s a moment of silence before the blonde opens the curtains a little bit, enough to let her head peek out, but hiding her naked body. “Or you could, you know… shower with me?” She says, a smirk forming at her lips. It’s an interesting proposition, Alicia admits to herself. “Are your Madison and Travis home?”

 

“No, they’re helping Richard.” The younger brunette informs. They are taking care of the piles of bodies outside the walls, but that’s something she doesn’t really want to think of. After all, Elyza just proposed that they could shower _together_ and it’s something that Alicia never did before. It’s tempting, especially to do it with her girlfriend. She doesn’t really care if it somehow gets to her mother’s ears that she showered with Elyza; it’s something that must be expected. They’re together and now everyone knows it. Madison already walked on them making out, so she should suppose that they’re already having sex… they’re still teenagers, after all.

 

She’s really considering it, as Elyza’s gaze is going down on her body shamelessly. Alicia doesn’t mind, because she knows her girlfriend doesn’t just see her as a piece of meat – unlike most men – and worships her body. Alicia loves the way the blonde looks at her.

 

“It’ll save water.” Elyza adds, a smirk on her lips.

 

Alicia scoffs. “You and I both know it won’t.” Her girlfriend gives her the slightest nod, understanding that she’s right. “But fine, make me some room.”

 

She starts stripping of her sweatpants slowly, looking at the blonde in her ocean blue eyes. It takes a few seconds before said eyes dart lower on her body, exploring every expanse of skin that she uncovers, appreciating the sight of long and perfect legs. Then, Alicia takes the hem of her t-shirt and slowly brings it up her head, removing it and tossing it in the same pile of clothes Elyza made.

 

Elyza’s mouth waters as she looks at her girlfriend’s matching pair of lacy underwear and bra. Someone definitely took underwear for herself while on the supply run. “You like it?” Alicia asks, a smug smile on her lips. Elyza can’t find the right words to answer the question, so she just gives another nod to her girlfriend.

 

Alicia hooks her thumb in her underwear and slowly brings them down her legs, as the blonde keeps watching her. Her panties sure has a wet spot on it, but she doesn’t care to hide it; the simple thought of showering with Elyza makes her aroused. She moves her hand behind her bad and unhooks her lacy bra. She removes the strap from her arms before removing it completely and letting it fall on the pile of clothes. She can hear her girlfriend swallowing her thirst.

 

She takes a step forward and pushes the shower curtains aside, revealing Elyza’s naked body, covered in droplets of water. The sight is mesmerizing; firm and toned thighs, curvy hips, flat stomach and perky breasts… If someone ever told Alicia that she would like another woman’s body in her life, she would have scoffed and said that it would happen. But here she is, contemplating her _girlfriend’s_ perfect body. Her mouth waters too.

 

The brunette gets in the shower. She is not startled by the temperature of the water, since it’s hot. The sensation of the water on her skin feels goon and relaxes her a little.

 

Elyza’s cheeks are red and it’s not from shyness at all, but definitely from the arousal and the water temperature… mostly from her arousal. How the hell is she supposed to only _shower_ with her girlfriend, who happens to have the body of a true goddess?

 

Alicia gets completely underneath the jet of water to have her hair wet. She turns herself to be back at the blonde, whose eyes only trails down her back, all the way to her ass. Elyza bites her lips and puts her hands on Alicia’s hips, pressing herself against the brunette’s body. Alicia hums in appreciation and throws her head back, leaning it on her girlfriend’s shoulder.

 

She feels kisses on her neck and lets out a shaky breath. “You’re driving me crazy already, but you’ve barely touched me.”

 

“Yet.” Elyza murmurs in her ear, with a suave and husky voice that turns Alicia on even more.

 

Alicia is so aroused already. The water jet hits her sensitive breasts and she fights the moan of pleasure about to leave her lips. She can already feel the tension in her stomach building quickly and hates that Elyza’s hands are not where she wants them the most right now.

 

She takes the blonde’s hand on her right hip with her own and moves it between her legs. She lets out a groan when fingers press against her already swollen bundle of nerves, applying pressure but not enough at her liking.

 

Elyza smiles when she feels Alicia’s hips buckling in need of more friction. As much as she likes to tease her girlfriend and take her time, they’re in the shower and she doesn’t really want everyone to know of their activities. She prefers to be respectful of the others; it can make them uncomfortable to know Alicia and her are having sex in the shower – especially since they only have the combination of a shower and a bath.

 

The blonde replaces her teasing fingers with the palm of her hand and Alicia grinds on it shamelessly, wanting to get off as soon as she can. The brunette plans to give the same treatment to her girlfriend.

 

Elyza keeps moving the palm of her hand against the brunette’s clit until she hears a few moans of pleasure. “It feels really good.” Alicia says, closing her eyes to focus on what Elyza is doing to her.

 

It doesn’t take much longer before she can’t take more, the building tension releasing in her stomach. She comes, her mouth open in a silent cry, and she forces Elyza’s hand to stop her motion because her clit is now too sensitive. “Fuck…” She pants, feeling unsteady on her legs. Elyza helps her, wrapping her arms around her middle and pressing few gentle kisses on her neck and shoulders.

 

“You’re so hot when you come.” Elyza lets out, her voice still husky, then she nips at her girlfriend’s earlobe.

 

“You’re so good to make me.” Alicia retorts, letting out a small chuckle. “It’s quite easy for me.” She leans against Elyza’s back and turns her head to look at her blue eyes. “Though I would love to return the favor…”

 

“You can now.” Elyza winks at her.

 

“You said that… you know, sometimes it takes you a while to get there.” Alicia raises her eyebrows. “Should we wait a little to give the others enough hot water?” Elyza pouts, because Alicia is kind of right. “Or, maybe you feel that you won’t take a while right now?”

 

Alicia is teasing her and the blonde frowns at her words. “It usually takes less longer if… – Oh, never mind.”

 

“What? I want to know, babe.” Elyza bites her lower lips as the brunette turns on herself, pressing their bodies together. She can feel her girlfriend’s hands moving to her hips, thumb brushing the wet skin. “I want to make you feel as good as you make me feel…” She trails out, a smile on her lips.

 

“You might not want to do this, since we’ve never done it before.” The blonde looks at her uncertainly.

 

Alicia lets out a sigh. “I’ll tell you if I’m not ready.”

 

“I prefer oral…” She chews on her bottom lip for a second.

 

“And you were afraid of asking me?” The brunette asks, looking back at ocean blue eyes. She sees the slight nod of Elyza. “It’s not because I’ve never been with a girl before that I’m against oral with my girlfriend.”

 

“I’m sorry for assuming.” She presses her lips against Alicia’s quickly. “I just didn’t want to make you uncomfortable, it’s all.”

 

“I’m comfortable with you, Elyza. Otherwise I wouldn’t be naked and showering with you.” She smiles and one of her hands moves lower, to cup her girlfriend’s center. “I want to feel you.” Elyza closes her eyes as she feels Alicia’s hand touching her, sending a jolt of pleasure through her body. “I’ll just need a moment to explore you.”

 

The blonde pulls Alicia in a long kiss that soon becomes heated, her hands wandering once more on the brunette’s body, teasing.

 

Alicia feels confident about this. She set her mind on wanting to make Elyza come and she’s not backing up from it – not that she wants to or is uncertain about this. She’s just taking a little bit more time to explore her. Even though she’s a girl, touching another is different. She’s only ever been with Matt before and they were always reticent towards oral – she didn’t really like it, before, when he would come in her mouth. It’s not something she liked nor enjoyed, to give oral, until he would say he couldn’t hold it anymore and wouldn’t bother pull out of her mouth. She swallowed, not wanting to spit his come in front of him, but disliked the taste of it.

 

She presses her fingers against Elyza’s clit and she hears the soft moan when she started to do rubbing motions on it. It’s good to know your partner is enjoying this. The blonde grips firmly her shoulder, tongue sticking out to lick at her lips. It takes Alicia only a second to grant her entrance and let her tongue joins Elyza’s.

 

The hips moving show Alicia that her girlfriend is eager for more friction and she starts rubbing with the palm of her hand, delicately at first, mirroring what the blonde did to her. Elyza lets out another small moan of pleasure and pushes her back against the cold tiles, not wanting to separate their bodies from even an inch.

 

Alicia hisses at the temperature of the tiles, but, combined with Elyza’s warmth, she’s so warm that soon she doesn’t feel their coldness. Fingers brushes her hardened sensitive nipples and she shudders at the touch. “Hey, this is supposed to be about you.” She complains, tearing their lips apart.

 

Elyza lets out a low chuckle. “I know sweet cheeks, but I can’t help myself, I want to touch you too.”

 

The brunette gets a little bolder when her fingers start stroking up and down Elyza’s folds, drawing a moan out of her as she presses them against her entrance. The blonde jerks her hips, her mouth lowering to Alicia’s neck. She’s so excited that she doesn’t know if her body is warm from her arousal or the jet of hot water hitting her back. She sucks her pulse point gently and moves up her thigh between her girlfriend’s legs, pressing it innocently against her center.

 

Alicia’s clit is still oversensitive from her last orgasm. She lets out a gasp when she feels a thigh pressing against her core and looks at her lover. “I think I’m not quite ready to get off again, I’m still very sensitive.”

 

“Mmmh okay.” Elyza shrugs and lowers her head a little bit more, taking one of the brunette’s nipples in her mouth. Alicia swears a few times, because her girlfriend is totally driving her crazy on purpose.

 

“Can I go inside of you?” She wonders, her voice quivering

 

Elyza nods. “You can.” She looks up to emerald green eyes with a grin on her lips. “And you don’t need to ask me if you want to do anything… I’m – open… to surprises.” She struggles to finish her sentence because Alicia pushes her fingers inside, discovering Elyza’s body at a slowly and teasing pace.

 

Arousal and water is glistening on her hand as she starts gently thrusting inside of the blonde, who shudders at how agonizing the slow movements are. Elyza presses her body harder against Alicia’s and keeps sucking and nipping at her neck, giving her a hickey. She’s a bit possessive, but the brunette definitely likes it.

 

“Go faster, babe.” She clenches her jaw as Alicia speeds things up, feeling a little bit of tension building in her stomach. “God I love you so much.” She grabs her girlfriend’s head between her hands and pulls her in a rough heated kiss, not holding back to bite and suck her swollen bottom lip.

 

Alicia is startled by how their situation becomes more and more heated and decides it’s time to change their position, removing her hands from her girlfriend’s core. She wants to pleasure Elyza and if that meant to give oral sex, she’ll happily obliges… especially because it’s different when a woman comes than a man. The brunette pushes her girlfriend until her back hits the other site of the shower wall. Elyza lets out a hiss, just like she did, because of the cold tiles.

 

She smiles innocently before slowly dropping to her knees, leaving the blonde’s mouth hanging open. “I wouldn’t be against a little guiding, here.”

 

“Okay.” Elyza’s voice comes hoarsely as she looks into Alicia’s beautiful green eyes.

 

The brunette starts by kissing Elyza’s lower belly, moving from her navel to her hips, that she gently nips on. Alicia’s hands caress her thighs up and down, sometimes touching teasingly her center, then she moves back to grab her ass. It takes a moment, but, when she’s ready, she parts her girlfriend’s leg enough to get closer to her core with her face. She’s probably anticipating the taste as much as Elyza wants her to _finally_ be touched where she needs by her mouth.

 

Her tongue darts out and she licks her girlfriend’s folds. She is surprised by the sweetness of the taste, just a little bit salty, but it’s hard to describe because it’s not close to anything she ever tasted in her life. She can’t say it’s not good, because it is, and she laps another time just to know if it really tastes like she imagined it with the first lick.

 

A stream of swear words leaves her girlfriend’s mouth as she brings one of her hands up, parting her girlfriend’s lips, and then presses the flat of her tongue on her swollen clit.

 

“Jesus, fuck, Alicia…” She bites her lips a few seconds. Having a brunette with the body of a goddess kneeling in front of you and doing ungodly things with her mouth… it’s definitely something that she has dreamed of before. “Wanna… try something?” She pants.

 

“Sure.” Alicia’s cheeks are flushed, but she smiles widely.

 

Elyza lick at her lips to soothe the bite. “Suck my clit?”

 

She nods at her girlfriend, discovering that she’s not against the blonde dirty talking with her – though now, it’s not really consciously. She obliges, bringing her head between Elyza’s legs once more and taking her clit carefully in her mouth, closing her lips around it.

 

When Alicia starts sucking on it, Elyza lets out a moan of pleasure and moves her hands behind the back of the brunette’s head, pressing on it. She’s too close already to wonder if it bothers Alicia to have her pushing against her head.

 

She sucks harder on the clit, taking the hand behind her head as an invitation to apply more pressure. Alicia’s tongue comes in the game and she flicks the bundle of nerves with it, earning another moan. She continues sucking and playing with her tongue for a good moment, feeling Elyza buckling her hips frantically. Alicia knows that she does that when she’s close to come undone, so she figures that her girlfriend is close too.

 

Alicia decides to pushes two fingers inside of Elyza as she keeps sucking on her clit. The reaction is magical; the blonde lets out a low moan and holds firmer Alicia’s head in place. Her inner walls flutter on the fingers thrusting inside of her. “Fuck, fuck, fuck, Alicia, I’m – ahhhh.”

 

She comes undone and Alicia feels proud, because it took them about ten minutes to make her girlfriend comes. Arousal coats her tongue and she can’t get enough of it. She slow down the motions of her fingers, until she removes it and cleans her folds, gently licking at them.

 

Elyza puts a hand over her mouth to avoid more sounds of coming out – but that wouldn’t make a big difference, since she sure made high-pitched moans while coming from her girlfriend’s mouth. She relaxes at the feeling of Alicia’s tongue, who purposely avoids her still pulsing clit from her orgasm. She closes her eyes and makes a giddy smile.

 

“I did good?” Alicia asks, leaving trails of kisses on Elyza’s skin until she presses firmly her mouth against hers.

 

Elyza mutters something incomprehensible and pulls her girlfriend into a tight hug, pushing their bodies until they’re under the jet of water to clean themselves.


	35. Chapter 35

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks everyone for the kudos, comments and bookmarks!
> 
> It's mostly a filler chapter for what comes next, but I think you'll still appreciate more interaction with Richard and Alejandra.

Alicia and Elyza wished that they could have stayed in the bathroom a little longer, enjoying pleasuring each other underneath the hot stream of water, but they got out before anyone came to interrupt them. Ofelia was the only one home, the others gone to help remove and bury the rotten corpses laying all around the community. She was watching an episode of a TV show, waiting for them to come out so they could join the others in their unpleasant task; she didn’t mentioned anything about the showers, but the couple certainly knew that she heard them – Elyza’s moans got louder than she expected.

 

They decide to put on clothes that they wouldn’t mind staining of blood and dirt. The three of them get out of their house, closing it without locking the doors, making their way to the gates. A man probably in his thirties named Donovan is at the watching post and opens the gate for them, then closes it. They nod at him and take out their knives, walking rapidly.

 

It takes them a few minutes before finally joining the others to help. Madison and Travis look like they’re taking a small break and Alicia understands that they had been working relentlessly since the sun is up. The temperature is getting warmer and they want to move and bury the bodies before sundown, hoping that they wouldn’t draw another horde’s attention on them. The only reason they’re out there is to avoid the decomposing corpses to smell. Since the piles of bodies are right across Hillrise, it would definitely start to smell one day or another, it’s only a matter of time.

 

They’re greeted by warm smiles from Alicia’s mother and stepfather. “Some of us finally decided to get out of bed and help.” Nick says, moving a little closer to his sister, who only rolls her eyes in response.

 

“After yesterday, I think we deserved it.” Elyza shrugs, looking at the bodies on the ground, thinking that she probably killed at least a quarter of them. She has to breathe through her mouth so the odor doesn’t make her want to throw up. Alicia is doing the same. “I had trouble sleeping.”

 

“Me too.” Madison adds, crossing her arms on her chest.

 

Alicia looks at her mother and asks: “Do we have news on Alistair and Emma? How are they holding up?”

 

They surely started to feel sick and feverish by now. The brunette can only hope that they had time to say proper goodbyes to their family and friends before getting too sick from the bite. Madison shrugs. “I know that Shawn doesn’t want to leave their sides, just in case… but they’re not feeling very well. Alistair has trouble to stay at the infirmary, he tried to sneak out twice to his house…”

 

“He has a wife and a kid, Shawn should let him.” The younger blonde points out.

 

Ofelia looks at her friend with a sorry smile. “I know, be can’t do that… someone needs to watch them and it’ll be easier if Emma and him stick together. Their families are allowed inside of the infirmary.”

 

They see Richard walking towards them, two shovels in his hands. He’s wearing his Army pants, stained with dirt and blood already. He gives them a nod and slows down to join them. “Hello ladies.” He greets Alicia, Elyza and Ofelia. “A few of us will take a well-deserved break to have a snack, if you don’t mind.”

 

“Its fine, go ahead. We’ll pick up where you stopped.” Alicia agrees, then look over at her mother and Travis. “You should take a break too to rehydrate yourselves.”

 

Travis smiles. “I wouldn’t be against this.”

 

“Okay.” Richard gives them the shovels and continues speaking. “Alejandra will explain to you how we’re proceeding. She’s over there.” He points in a direction. “Just a little down this hill.” Elyza hums and pokes the ground with the metal part of the shovel, as she feels his gaze on her. “Please don’t get at each other’s throats, we don’t need this right now. Understood?”

 

The blonde fights against rolling her eyes at him, knowing that this wouldn’t help her cause and probably will make him angry at her. She lets out a quick ‘yeah’, before walking down in the direction Richard indicated, not waiting for Alicia or Ofelia to follow her.

 

Richard looks at the brunette and reminds her of something. “Don’t forget to look around, we caught a few walkers this morning.” He smiles and crosses his hands on his muscled chest. “And make sure that the walkers are dead, Nick almost got bit this morning because he didn’t pay attention.”

 

Alicia glances at his brother, who shrugs. “Someone hit a walker in the neck, but it didn’t kill it. I got lucky.” The brunette would have been very mad at him if he got bit. “I’m fine.” Nick tries to reassure his sister.

 

She analyzes him closely, trying to figure out if he’s on something in this moment. She wouldn’t be surprised if he is, but she can’t tell without him noticing that she _suspects_ he is. Alicia soon abandons she idea. “Come help the ladies?” She asks him, a smile tugging at her lips.

 

“Sure.”

 

Madison, Travis and Richard leaves, the woman telling them one more time to be careful of their surroundings, before their small group starts walking in the same direction than Elyza. She knows that Alejandra and the blonde won’t be alone and Richard specifically asked to ignore the tension between each other. It somehow reassures her a bit.

 

Alicia sees that her girlfriend stopped before getting to Alejandra, having to take care of a walker on her way. She smirks at the sight of Elyza slamming the shovel on the said walker’s head with force. The blonde grimaces and looks down at the now inanimate corpse on the ground and mutters something that Alicia can’t hear, probably swears.

 

The group catch up with her and they make their way to the Hispanic woman, working with someone to move a corpse down a hole they made in the ground. It looks deep enough, but they know they’ll have to dig more than a few holes to bury all the rotten bodies around here and there.

 

Alejandra glances at them and presses her lips in a fine tight line, obviously bothered to have the small group coming towards her. She knows that she’ll have to explain them their methods and other few things… meaning that they’ll have to interact, while Richard is on a break with a few others.

 

Ofelia takes a few more steps towards the Hispanic woman and greets her in Spanish, both their native tongue. Alejandra forces a smile and it doesn’t go unseen by Elyza and Alicia. “Richard told us that you’ll explain what we’ll do.” The Salvadoran woman says, pointing at the walker’s body not far from them.

 

“Right.” She nods and clears her throat, before continuing. “It’s pretty simple; while a few of us are digging holes, the others carry the bodies and drop it in there. The holes need to be pretty deep, so we can bury at least five walkers in there.”

 

“Can we pick what we want to do?” Nick asks, scratching the back of his head.

 

“You think we have time to sort the tasks between us?” Alejandra retorts harshly, crossing her arms on her chest. “No, but we’ll all alternate to continue being efficient. We have to clear this before it rains or nightfall.”

 

Elyza feels anger blossoming inside of her and she wants nothing more than Alejandra finally shutting up. She walks on the ground like she owns it and it irritates the blonde at the upmost. Then the Hispanic woman looks straight at her with her dark brown eyes, a smirk on her lips and says: “All the ones with shovels get to dig the holes for thirty minutes.” She puts a timer on her watch. “Beginning now.”

 

Alicia looks at her with a small sorry smile; there’s nothing she can do here, because Ofelia has the other shovel. Elyza can’t disobey Richard’s orders and complain about Alejandra’s decisions. “Remember to be careful with the walkers, okay?” The blonde tells her girlfriend.

 

“And you to pay attention to what’s around you.” Alicia points out, brushing the blonde’s hands with her own.

 

Elyza cracks a smile. “That will be hard, because all I can think of is…” She leans to whisper something in the brunette’s ear, with her suave voice. “… this morning in the shower… and what I plan to do to you tonight.”

 

Alicia’s cheeks redden instantly and she lets out a breath. “You really have to tell me this right now?”

 

The blonde presses a quick kiss on her cheek. “This might give you some strength to get through the day.”

 

“…. Fair enough.”


	36. Chapter 36

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay guys, a lot happens in this chapter! All I can say is... two persons get bit. 
> 
> I hope you're going to like the way it turns out. Leave a comment to let me know if you appreciated, I'd like that a lot!

The group alternates tasks at each thirty minutes. If it wasn’t for that and the absence of sun, covered by enormous darkening gray clouds, Elyza would be completely exhausted. Carrying walkers gives them a little break from digging large and deep holes in the ground to bury all the bodies laying around.

 

It’s going to rain soon and they have to hurry up before getting inside of their community’s walls for safety. Even Alejandra knows that working in the mud isn’t the best of the ideas; sure, it would make the soil easier to work with, but it’s going to be heavier and they’ll have a hard time to travel the bodies to the holes. Not to mention that they would still have to look for the incoming walkers and their visibility would be reduced considerably. Definitely not a wise idea.

 

Sweat is running down the sides of her face and her neck. Elyza knows she probably looks dirty and very unappealing, since they had been working a little over two hours. When Alicia comes near her or vice versa, she can see sparks of lust in those green eyes and a smirk on her girlfriend’s lips. She pushed the ungodly memories of the brunette and her in the shower, this same morning, to concentrate on her task, even if it’s difficult when she is faced with Alicia’s smug face; it’s a reminder that she’s promised to continue their intimate activities later, when they’ll be done burying the piles of bodies all around.

 

Elyza is teaming up with Ofelia to drag the rotting bodies to the holes, taking either the hands or the legs. The Salvadoran woman looks down at Nick, digging in a hole to make it deeper, and offers him a smile. “Are you about done with this one?” She asks him.

 

He glances up at her and Elyza, putting a hand over his eyes because, even if the sun is hidden behind the clouds, the sunlight is still hard on the eyes and it makes it difficult to see when someone is down a hole. “Yeah, you can drop this walker in.”

 

The duo nod simultaneously and swing the body, only to let it go. It falls in the hole, where Nick still is, and does a horrific bone cracking sound. Gladly for them, they got used to hear it and gore-ish stuff didn’t make them want to throw up anytime. Perks of the apocalypse; they can handle well the horrible smells and disgusting sight – the veterinarian clinic was one of the first and last time they all had a churning stomach after getting inside, due to all the blood and dead animals devoured by the walkers. It was too much for them.

 

“Help me get out?” Nick proposes, raising his arms.

 

Ofelia rolls her eyes and, just like Elyza, grabs the younger man’s hands. They pull him out of the hole in a record time. “You were perfectly capable of getting out by yourself.” The Salvadoran roman retorts, trying to repress the smile forming on her lips.

 

Nick shrugs. “I wouldn’t pass on two gorgeous woman giving me a hand.”

 

Alicia’s head peaks out of a hole and she frowns. “Stop hitting on my girlfriend, come on!” Ofelia and Elyza chuckle at the younger brunette’s words that was exempt of any sort of jealousy. She perfectly knows that Nick wouldn’t hit on the blonde and that it was just his usual humor.

 

Just as the grey clouds were getting darker, some of them could feel and see the droplets of water. “It starts raining.” Alicia can hear her girlfriend grumbling. She knows that Elyza really don’t like this kind of weather, especially if it starts thundering.

 

“Maybe we should stop for today.” Nick proposes, looking at the women around him.

 

Alejandra, who was getting closer and carrying another walker’s body, lets the said body fall in Alicia’s hole, barely hitting the brunette, who saw her just in time and took a step back. “We’re not stopping, this is just droplets.” She says, looking at Nick in the eyes. Alicia grumbles something under her breath, looking at the body a few centimeters from her, then decides to get out of the hole. “We only have a dozen walkers left to bury.”

 

“Which is _exactly_ why we should take a break.” Elyza counters, giving her a cold stare. “We did most of the work.”

 

The Hispanic woman rolls her eyes at Elyza in annoyance. “What did Richard say?”

 

“I don’t give a–”

 

“That you’re in charge.” Alicia interrupts her girlfriend, putting a hand on her back. She’s only trying to put them in a better position, but she understands completely Elyza’s opinion and _doesn’t give a fuck either_ about what Richard said.

 

Alejandra serves them a wicked smile. “That’s right. You follow _my_ orders when Richard isn’t there, it’s as simple as that.” Elyza clenches her jaw at the words.

 

Nick doesn’t hold back. “You may take the decisions when your man isn’t here, but they’re certainly not the wisest.” The rain starts to intensify suddenly. “I’m sorry, I’m not listening orders from someone who obviously doesn’t care if we get killed by walkers.”

 

Truth spoken, everyone stays silent for a few seconds. Alicia, Nick, Ofelia and Elyza share a look with each other, knowing that Alejandra is only getting angrier at them, which is definitely not a good thing.

 

“We took you in with wide open arms and we’ll have no problem kicking your sorry asses out of Hillrise for good if you keep behaving like this.” Alejandra continues. “I suggest you keep it low.”

 

Ofelia sighs. “You’ve been unfair towards most of us since we arrived. You can’t deny that.”

 

“You are _strangers_ and Richard is naive enough to think that taking you in won’t have consequences.” Alejandra says, frowning. “Alistair and Emma were bit and they’re dying.” She points at Elyza. “It’s because of _you_ , because _you_ decided that it would be better to use your shotgun instead of killing rotters with knives!”

 

“Emma was the one firing first, _I didn’t_.” Elyza growls.

 

“Elyza has nothing to do with a walker biting them!” Alicia takes a step forward in the Hispanic woman’s direction. “ _WE_ would be all dead without her, so I suggest you stop your nonsense.”

 

Alejandra shakes her head. “She’s a murderer!” Elyza clenches her fists and tilts her head in confusion. “You know what I’m talking about, and it’s not only about Alistair and Emma.”

 

“Enlighten me, because I don’t.” The blonde says.

 

“You all are murderers.” Alejandra mumbles, taking a step back. “I should have warned Richard about you.”

 

“What _the fuck_ is she talking about?” Nick asks, looking at each of them, his eyes lingering at his sister.

 

Elyza’s gaze lowers and she sees Alejandra’s hand moving to reach her pistol. Everyone notices it too and their blood turn cold.

 

Two names, one that they already know.

 

“James.” Alejandra takes the pistol out of her holster and points it towards the blonde’s face, removing the safety. Elyza swallows with difficulty, realizing that Alejandra is pointing at her face and she was about to shoot at her. “And Greg.” They’re screwed. “They’re dead because of _you_.”

 

Elyza wishes that she could take her pistol and shoot her before Alejandra does it first, but she’ll fire as soon as she sees her move her hands. She stays still and looks at the Hispanic woman, her stomach churning. They’re in a pretty bad situation right now. She can’t say it was Nick that killed the black man, who she now knows he was named James. They were the first to attack and they tried to abuse them.

 

“You can’t deny that.” Alejandra says, shaking her head.

 

Alicia feels her heartbeat getting faster as she sees her girlfriend’s head is being the target of Alejandra. She doesn’t want this to end up with her Elyza having a bullet in the head – she deserves better than that.

 

They have to be really careful. No one moves or dare to open their mouth, because that could mean someone’s death. Elyza’s death. It’s raining a lot and their clothes are getting soaked. Alicia feels them molding her skin and she hates the sensation.

 

Alejandra has a victorious wicked smile on her lips and that alone makes the couple want to throw up.

 

Nick is the first to say a thing. “There’s a walker behind you.”

 

Four pair of eyes – all except Alejandra’s – glances up over her shoulder to look at the walker coming towards them, shuffling. They can’t hear its groans because of the rain pouring down on them.

 

Alejandra don’t bother looking behind her, without doubt thinking that it was one of their ruse to fool her. “You should probably shut up, Nick, or you’ll end up second on my list.”

 

“Is this some kind of game for you?” Ofelia asks. “Threatening people, because they killed while defending themselves against _rapists_?” It’s bold to talk to Alejandra like this and Alicia hoped that her friend would have kept her mouth shut; it’s her girlfriend’s life on the line.

 

“They were my best friends! You provoked them, I saw you through the windows!” The Hispanic woman says.

 

Alicia then understands what Ofelia was trying to do; distract her while the walker is approaching. She only hopes that Alejandra wouldn’t notice it before it got to her and that she wouldn’t shoot Elyza if she gets bit.

 

“We didn’t provoke them, we found them after they sneaked inside the house to steel our supplies.” The younger brunette says with a soft voice, trying to not irritate Alejandra more.

 

“I don’t care.” She says back. “I saw Daniel torturing them and I’m glad they didn’t share a thing with you.”

 

“Why did you keep this for yourself?” Ofelia asks, narrowing her eyes. The walker was getting considerably close to Alejandra. “Because you wanted your revenge?”

 

“Mostly, yes… but I knew if I told Richard, he would have told Damian about his father.”

 

Of course. They didn’t think about this at all. James – Greg’s acolyte – was Damian’s father and now his son is out there looking after him. But they know that James is dead, because Nick shot him when he was trying to kill Daniel. It all makes sense now.

 

“So, you told him bullshit?” Nick looks at Alejandra, then clenches his jaw as the walker is only a few footsteps away.

 

“I… - Aaaaaahh!”

 

* * *

 

It happens in only a few seconds. Elyza had the instinctive reaction to crouch and it’s probably what saved her life; Alejandra, when she felt the sharp pain of the bite at the junction of her neck and shoulder, pressed her finger on the trigger and fired in the blonde’s direction.

 

The pain doesn’t stop Alejandra from fighting back. She hits the walker in the head with the handle of her pistol, forcing the walker to let go of her. She releases a few grunt of pain and turn on herself to face the undead reaching to grab her once again. Losing grip on her firearm, she lets it fall on the now muddy ground, taking out her knife.

 

Nick has the ingenuous idea of pushing Alejandra’s back while she’s fighting with the walker, making her lose balance and stumble. She doesn’t fall on the ground, though. She reacts soon enough and she stick her knife in the walker’s head with all the force her weakened and injured shoulder can give her.

 

Elyza knows that Alejandra made it personal by accusing her and it’s therefore her problem – her fight. She takes a few steps forward and sees the Hispanic woman turning on herself, facing her.

 

“You’re going down with me.” Alejandra pants.

 

“I didn’t kill Greg nor James, but I wish I did it with my bare hands, because they’re no better than you are.” ELyza says.

 

She doesn’t have time to take her hunting knife from her belt that Alejandra is lunging forward, knife pointed at her stomach. Elyza barely avoids it – the woman has some skills and she’s still fast, even if she is injured. She doesn’t see her fist coming and it collides with her jaw. The impact sends her back and she worries, for a second, that Alejandra has the upper hand on her – oh hell no that she’s going to let that bitch have her.

 

Alicia is there to save her from more punches and she sends her fist in Alejandra’s stomach, making her breathless. Elyza struggles to stay on her feet and she feels someone – Ofelia – putting a hand around her shoulder for balance. Only one hit and she’s already seeing stars.

 

It’s a chance they have that there’s no more walkers coming for them, because they would have all been in big trouble.

 

Alejandra looks up at Alicia, still bent from her last hit, hands in her stomach to ease the pain away. “You’re a _fucking bitch_.”

 

“So I’ve been told.” The younger brunette retorts. Alejandra closes the gap between her and Alicia and tries to hit her with the knife. Alicia surprises herself because she is quite good at avoiding it, even if the ground is sloppy and muddy. “You fight like a child.”

 

She sends her fist to Alejandra’s face and, before she knows it, the woman takes her wrist and turns it in a position that really, really hurts. She hears it crack and feels it too. Alicia releases a ton of insults.

 

Alejandra smirks before bringing Alicia’s wrist to her mouth and she bites down _hard_. Alicia lets out a sharp cry of pain, her legs quivering. Alejandra finally releases her because Nick wraps her arm around her neck. “I hope you’ll turn.” She spats.

 

Nick tightens his grip and the Hispanic woman struggles for air. Alicia’s brother looks at them, uncertain of if he had to kill her. He knows that Alejandra can do a lot of damage and now their situation with Hillrise was compromised.

 

Alicia looks at the bite on her wrist and pants – Alejandra had just been bit too, what if she wouldn’t transmit her the disease before dying and turning?

 

“Are you alright?” Ofelia asks her friend, a worried look on her face. Elyza’s expression matches hers.

 

“I’m fine.”

 

“Guys, what do we do with this one?” Nick asks, struggling with the woman in his arms, who was fiercely fighting to get free of his grip.

 

“We leave her for dead.” Ofelia proposes.

 

“No, it’s not a good thing, we’re too close to the community for that. She’ll warn everyone.” Elyza explains. “We need to kill her, that our only option. We’ll say that she got bit.”

 

“What about me?” Alicia asks, mentioning her still bleeding wound.

 

“We’ll have to figure that out later…” She says, gripping firmly at her hunting knife. “I’ll do it, just keep her still, Nick.” He nods his approval and tightens his grip around Alejandra’s neck, who was already struggling for air. “Seems like you are going down, _honey_.”

 

“Bitch.” Alejandra says with a strangled voice.

 

It’s the last thing Elyza allows her to say before sticking her knife in her stomach. Alejandra doesn’t even have the force to scream, but she opens her mouth and moves her hands from Nick’s arms to her stomach to try and contain the pain. It’s not very effective, to say the least. Nick doesn’t wait any longer before pushing her in the hole. One problem off their shoulders now, even if they’ll have to deal with Richard later.

 

“Finally.” Ofelia mumbles. “We should get back home and figure what to tell Richard.”

 

They all give a final look to Alejandra dying at the bottom of the hole before getting inside their community’s walls.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Follow me on Tumblr! (@thesilversouls) I mostly reblog Clarke x Lexa stuff (fanart, etc.) and funny/educational stuff. I accept (anon) request for the story, so if you want to see Elyza or Alicia do something, just ask!


	37. Chapter 37

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I want to reassure everyone, Alicia's not going to die. It's not something I want.
> 
> Shorter chapter, my wrist is slowing my writing. I might not update tomorrow.

It’s raining a lot and they try to hurry up before anyone gets concerned about them being still outside of the walls. They know that coming back without Alejandra will, without doubt, draw the attention on them and make people ask questions. The four of them are already prepared for that.

 

What they’re not prepared for is Alicia’s bite: Alejandra bit her and, even if she wasn’t turned into a walker yet, she still was bitten by one, which means that there are risks that Alicia is also infected. Elyza made a makeshift bandage to her girlfriend, trying to erase the worry in her own blue eyes, trying not to think about the outcome of their situation.

 

“We’ll say you fell and it’s just a scratch, okay?” Elyza says. “We can’t have Shawn looking this up, he’ll think a walker bit you and… he’ll put you with Emma and Alistair in the infirmary.”

 

Alicia’s eyes are filled with water and she clenches her jaw every now and then because of she pulsating pain in her arm. It hurts like hell and the brunette wonders if the others will notice how bad she’s in pain. “Okay.” She manages to croaks out, putting a hand over the bandage to try to ease the swelling away.

 

They keep running until they reach the gates, all soaked and out of breath. Their clothes are clinging to their skin. It takes a moment before Donovan opens the gates for them. When he does, they make their way inside of the community’s walls. Richard, Travis and Madison are immediately coming towards them, not bothering about the rain. The mother’s eyes are on Alicia and she notices the makeshift bandage and gives her a questioning look.

 

“What took you so long?” Travis says.

 

“Where is Alejandra?” Richard asks, looking at the now closed gate with a worried look.

 

Ofelia shakes her hand. “I’m sorry, Richard she… she was bit by a walker.”

 

“And you left her out there?!”

 

“It was pretty nasty. She was already dead when it started raining.” Elyza lies, doing her best to look devastated. “We tried to take her body, but we can’t see a damn thing out there with the rain.”

 

Richard looks both very sad and angry, but when he looks at Alicia, his expression softens. He glances at the bandage. “Were you bit too?”

 

“No, no…” She tries not wince at the wave of pain. “It’s just a bad scratch.”

 

“You should get to the infirmary.” He says. “Have Shawn look at this to avoid infection.”

 

“Yes, okay.” Alicia doesn’t want to say that she doesn’t want to see his brother. She only agree, but her and the three others – Nick, Ofelia and Elyza – already know that she won’t visit the infirmary for a check-up with Shawn. He’ll tell Richard that she was bit and then everyone would freak out, especially if she isn’t infected because Alejandra wasn’t turned when she bit her. When the inhabitants of Hillrise understand that she had been bitten by a human living and not a walker, they’ll start to worry and ask questions, which is not something they want.

 

Travis moves to be in front of Richard. “We’ll bury Alejandra’s body tomorrow.” He says, trying to reassure the man, giving him a sorry smile.

  
Elyza is sure that she sees a tear escaping Richard’s eyes, even with all the rain pouring down on them, and she can’t help but feel guilty for a few seconds; they did that. They killed Alejandra and, other than them, no one really knows what happened. She knows they’ll have to bear this on their own.

 

“Excuse me.” Richard looks at them and turns, in direction of his house, leaving the group behind. They understand that he needs to be alone to cope with this, to get along with the idea that Alejandra is now dead.

 

* * *

 

They don’t waste more time under the cold rain; they get inside their house and starts removing their soaked clothes. The only dry person from their group is Daniel, who was still weakened by his shoulder injury.

 

Elyza gets rid of her clothes and then helps her girlfriend. With a bite wound on her arm, Alicia has a hard time getting her clothes off and she’s thankful for the help. “I should take care of your wound before Shawn comes in to look at it.” She says to Alicia, looking at the makeshift bandage red with blood. She probably haven’t stopped bleeding yet.

 

There’s a knock at their door and they exchange a look for a few seconds. “Girls, it’s only me.” Comes Madison’s voice. “Can I come in?”

 

Before Elyza has the time to protest, Alicia speaks. “Yes.” After all, they weren’t undressed, they put dry clothes on. The pile of soaked clothes was at their feet.

 

The blonde gives Alicia a look, biting down her lips as Madison opens the door and enters in the room. “Are you all right, sweetie?” She asks, looking down at her daughter’s bandaged arm. “This looks like a lot of blood for just a bad scratch.”

 

“Promise me you won’t freak out, okay?” Alicia says, pulling at the blood and rain soaked fabric. “It’s not what it looks like.” She pulls it down a little more and everyone can see the teeth marks in her flesh.

 

Tears starts forming at Madison’s eyes. “You were bit?”

 

The expression on her mother’s face makes her stomach churn and she shakes her head. “Mom, we need to tell you something… you’re not gonna like it.” She takes a deep breath. “This isn’t a walker’s bite.”

 

“And whose is it?”

 

Elyza is the one to answer. “ _Alejandra_.”

 

“What the hell happened out there?” Madison’s tears are now flooding her cheeks. She looks surprised, trying to figure out what it meant that Alejandra was the person who bit her daughter on the arm.

 

Alicia passes a hand on her face to remove the droplets of water. “She started being an ass with us and it led to a rather surprising confession. You remember Greg and the black man? Well, they are Alejandra’s best friends and a part of the community… she was there when they attacked us, she was looking through the windows all this time. She told us that Richard doesn’t know a thing.”

 

“A walker bit her when she wasn’t paying attention.” Elyza adds, crossing her arms on her chest. “She was going to kill us.”

 

“We had no choice, Mom.” Alicia lets out a sob. “She had a gun pointed at Elyza’s face…”

 

Madison’s eyes widen considerably as they talk about their situation. “Why did she bite you?” She asks, confused.

 

“I think… I think that she wanted me to turn too, but she had just been bit for less than a minute.” Alicia looks down at the red vivid flesh and sighs. “I think everything’s going to be fine, because she wasn’t dead yet.”

 

“I really hope you’ll be fine, sweetie.” Madison pulls her daughter into a hug.

 

“Yeah, me too.”

 

“We should clean that up before it gets infected.” Elyza says, bringing them back to reality. She takes out a First-Aid kit from her backpack and looks up at her girlfriend. “We have to be quick, because Shawn will get here soon. If he sees this and thinks it’s a walker’s bite… he’s going to put you in the infirmary with the others.”

 

Alicia nods, pulling back from her mother’s embrace. “And if he sees that, after a while, I’m still me, he’ll start asking questions and we don’t want that.”

 

“Right.” The blonde agrees, unzipping the bag. “Sit on the bed, I’ll look at you to see if you need stitches.”

 

Alicia sees the sadness in her girlfriend’s voice and she puts a hand on her shoulder. “Don’t worry about me, Elyza. Things are going to be fine.”

 

Elyza glances at her and shakes her head. “You don’t know that…” Her girlfriend rolls her eyes as she continues. “I’ve put you more times in trouble than I saved you, so you don’t know that. What if Alejandra contaminated you already and you’re slowly starting to get sick? I’ve heard that sometimes it can causes hallucinations and… and…” Her chin quivers and she adverts her gaze. “What if I… what if we lose you?”

 

“Babe, shhhht.” She wraps her arms around Elyza’s neck, not caring if her mother is in the room to see the display of affection between her and her girlfriend. “I don’t feel sick, don’t worry. You’re not gonna lose me, I’m too stubborn to let anything happen to me.”

 

Elyza lets out a wet chuckle. “You’re right.”

 

“Of course I am.” She whispers at the blonde’s ears. “Please, now we really need to clean this and I trust you not to hurt me too much.”

 

Pressing a small kiss in Alicia’s neck, Elyza pulls back and grimaces. “You know it’s going to hurt anyways, right?”

 

“Just do it.”

 

Elyza puts on latex gloves, hiding her smirk, and takes the equipment she needs to clean her girlfriend’s bite wound. Madison can’t help but hover her daughter’s shoulders to look at the younger blonde starting to work.

 

When Elyza puts clear liquid on a gauze and slowly starts to clean the blood. Alicia winces at the pain and clenches her teeth together, not wanting to let out a scream of pain. It hurts like hell; Alejandra’s teeth went deep in her skin and she could feel the pain spreading to her fingers and her shoulders, something she would never wish for anyone. Madison puts a comforting hand on her back, but she doesn’t even pay attention to this anymore, way too focused on Elyza cleaning the nasty wound.

 

Elyza releases a soft sigh. “I’m sorry babe, this was not how I planned the evening.” She rambles, not liking to see Alicia’s face reflecting her pain. She didn’t say the words to reassure her girlfriend or anything, she just doesn’t want to work and not say anything.

 

Alicia would have preferred the other plan much more better; cozy in bed after a long shower, cuddling and possibly making love before a good night of sleep. Her face turns red, but it’s more because of the pain than the slight wave of arousal hitting her.

 

“I’m almost done.” Elyza says, looking closely to the wound. “It’s deep, but I don’t think you need stitches. Lucky you.” Alicia pants and a tear escapes to roll on her cheeks. “I hate to see you like this.” Madison keeps quiet as the younger blonde wraps her daughter’s arm with a new clean bandage. “Just try to not move it too much for the few hours and… I’ll change the bandage when needed to.”

 

“Thank you.” Alicia leans to press her lips against her girlfriend’s, taking her by surprise. “I love you.”

 

Elyza doesn’t care if Madison is there or not, she leans into the kiss and wraps her arms around Alicia’s middle, right after removing the used latex gloves. “I love you too.”


	38. Chapter 38

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Small filler chapter :D

Madison, seeing that her daughter is exhausted after the rush of adrenaline, leaves the room. Elyza and Alicia keep hugging each other, in search for comfort, not wanting to let go just yet. The blonde is nervous at the idea of losing her girlfriend; what if, after all, Alejandra had been contaminated and, by biting Alicia, signed her death warrant? Elyza doesn’t know what to say or do, so she simply pulls the brunette closer in her arms.

 

Alicia understands that her girlfriend is worrying about her. She would have done the same if Alejandra bit Elyza instead of her. “I’m tired.” She tells her, pulling back to stare at ocean blue eyes. “Maybe we should get some sleep.”

 

 _But what if you don’t wake up?_ Is the question reflecting in Elyza’s eyes. She doesn’t even want to think about what she would possibly do if she wakes up next to Alicia’s cold body. If she would turn into a walker, Elyza is not sure that she would be capable of fighting back and putting a bullet or a knife in her girlfriend’s head. She wouldn’t be able to live with herself, after that. Seeing Madison looking at her, knowing that she killed her daughter, she couldn’t handle that. She’d have to leave Hillrise, leave _her_ group, and be alone. She would be an easy prey for walkers and other survivors.

 

“Elyza, I think you’re freaking out more than I do.” Alicia says, taking the blonde’s face between her cold hands.

 

She offers Alicia a sorry smile. “I’m sorry.”

 

Alicia presses her lips to the blonde’s forehead. “Don’t be, I would be too if it was you.”

 

“I just… I’m afraid that, if you sleep, you won’t wake up, or if you do you’d be a walker and I don’t think I’ll be capable of killing you.” Elyza breathes out, lowering her gaze to avoid eye contact with her girlfriend. “It’s silly, I know, but–”

 

The brunette cuts her. “No, you’re not silly Elyza.” She offers her a reassuring smile. “Other than the pain of the actual bite, I feel fine. No headaches, no dizziness, nothing. If I start being unwell, I will tell you.”

 

Elyza nods. “Okay, okay, I’m–”

 

“If you dare say you’re sorry again, I’ll slap you.” Alicia says, letting out a chuckle. She wasn’t serious about slapping her girlfriend, she just wanted her to stop worrying about the situation. All that happened with Alejandra wasn’t Elyza’s fault.

 

A small smile creeps at Elyza’s lips. “… I’m so in love with you.”

 

“I’m glad that we’re on the same page.” Alicia continues, pressing a kiss on the blonde’s lips. “Because I’m with love with you too and if you think I’m going to let you alone here with my crazy family, you’re wrong.”

 

“Your family isn’t crazy.” She sees Alicia rolling her eyes. “Okay, maybe just a little?”

 

* * *

 

They’re comfortable under a pile of blankets, searching for warmth. Elyza is cuddling Alicia, who is currently sleeping like a brick. The events of the last days tired them – first, the supply run that involved a lot of walking, killing the zombies near the fence, burying the said zombies into holes they had to dig and then, finally, the fight with Alejandra that had been emotionally draining them. Elyza isn’t capable of closing an eye, too much on her mind for that, so she just watches Alicia sleeping. She listens at the soft snores and wraps her arms around the brunette, nuzzling her nose in her hair.

 

Elyza thinks for a second that her life could have ended a few hours before, when Alejandra had the gun directly pointing at her face. Bless that walker that came in and saved the day – she would have never thought that she would thank a walker for saving her life. Though now she worries about the consequences of the fight with the Hispanic woman; what if Richard suspects anything about them? Because they did, in fact, kill Alejandra. If she really didn’t say a word to him about Alicia and Elyza’s group taking Greg and James hostage and killing them, they’re safe… but it’s still not enough to stop Elyza’s mind from racing.

 

She doesn’t even want to know what Alicia would have done if Alejandra pulled the trigger and blown her face up. Probably try to kill her.

 

There’s a knock at the door and she can hear Nick’s voice. “Girls, Shawn is here, he wants to check up on Alicia.” He says, waiting for an approval before opening the door.

 

Elyza had been afraid of Shawn’s visit to check up on her girlfriend. As the community’s nurse, it was clear that he would have wanted to see if everything was all right. Ofelia is his assistant, learning the most of what he has to teach her, but they’ve been in Hillrise for about two weeks now. She didn’t have much chance to practice with him.

 

The blonde pulls away reluctantly from the warmth and puts on her jeans. Even if she wasn’t capable of getting some sleep, she is still very tired and feels like she could sleep for three days straight. “Just a minute.” She says with a low voice, walking towards the door.

 

She opens it and finds Nick and Shawn standing behind it. Elyza is somehow relieved that Richard isn’t there to ask question to them. “Hey.” She greets Shawn with a sleepy smile.

 

“Hi, would you mind if I check up on Alicia?” Shawn returns her smile. “It will be real quick, I promise.”

 

It’s getting late, probably around 9 o’clock in the evening. Elyza grimaces and shakes her head. “She just fell asleep, we’re all pretty banged up about what happened out there… I think it would be better for her is we let her sleep for the rest of the night.”

 

“Of course, I’m sorry. I haven’t noticed how late it is.” He looks at Nick and then back at Elyza’s blue eyes. “Since you’re up, I would like to talk with you.”

 

She knows that she shouldn’t refuse this, so she doesn’t. Shawn probably wants to talk with her about Alejandra’s death to know how it really happened. “Sure, let’s go in the kitchen.”

 

Nick, Elyza and Shawn moves to the kitchen. Ofelia is already there, a warm cup of coffee in her hands, teeth clashing together. She probably caught a cold, after spending a good amount of time outside. “Hey, I thought you were asleep.” The Salvadoran woman says to her younger blonde friend.

 

“No, I couldn’t close my eyes.” Elyza says, moving to the coffee maker. She glances at Nick and Shawn. “You guys want coffee?”

 

“Yes, thanks.” Shawn answers. Nick simply shakes his head, a look of disdain on his face. Coffee is not for everyone, after all.

 

A few minutes later, Ofelia is halfway through her coffee when Elyza and Shawn only started to drink from their mugs. “You want to talk about Alejandra, right?” It’s more of a statement than a question. She chooses carefully her words, because she knows that Alejandra and Shawn were quite close too, living under the same roof and all.

 

“Yes… I would have like to speak with Alicia too, but I think I’ll do that later.” He adverts his gaze, looking down at the coffee in his mug. “We’ve known each other for a long time, me and her… Richard is devastated. We all are.”

 

“We’re sorry.” Ofelia tells him with a reassuring voice.

 

He keeps looking away. “How did this happen?”

 

This is the time where they have to lie and, as much as Elyza dislike this, they have to do it. Their lives are on it. If they can’t make Shawn believe them, knowing that Elyza and Alejandra didn’t get along in the first place, he could put the blame on them. That’s why the blonde decides to keep quiet for this part.

 

Nick lets out a sigh. “It started raining… I suggested that we stop, but there wasn’t a lot of bodies and she wanted to finish burying them.” He pauses. “I didn’t see it happen.”

 

Shawn nods and finally looks at Elyza and Ofelia. Both of them at sitting on the counter, mugs in their hands. “Alicia was done digging a hole and I offered to help her get out. I think she didn’t see it happen too, but I heard her.” Elyza recites, maintaining eye contact with Shawn. “I saw the walker biting her neck and alerted the others.”

 

“By the time we caught up, she was already dead…”

 

“And you didn’t think to take her back here?” Shawn accuses, giving them a cold look. “Richard is freaking out, he wanted to go outside when it’s raining chords, just to find her body!” Of course, Shawn would be concerned about his brother.

 

“We tried, walkers attacked us and Alicia fell back in the hole. That’s how she hurt herself. We had to get back inside, we couldn’t see shit with the rain and it was getting dark too.” Nick explains, crossing his arms on his chest. “We didn’t have time to take her with us, it was too dangerous to start with.”

 

Shawn bites on his lower lip and shakes his head. “Did you put a knife to her head?”

 

“No.” Ofelia says.

 

“She’s gonna turn…” The nurse points out. “Alejandra’s gonna turn and now Richard won’t want anyone but him to take care of her… great.” He passes a hand on his face.

 

“We can go out there before him.” Elyza proposes. “To take her body inside the walls and do like… a ceremony or something to remember her.” She wants to throw up at her own words; she doesn’t want to commemorate someone that tried to shoot her in the face and clearly wanted all of her group gone.

 

Shawn lets out a deep sigh. “Richard’s going out as soon as it stops raining… and I think he wants to be alone for that.” They stay silent for a few more seconds, before Shawn speaks again. “Alright, I’m sorry for staying late, I’ll leave you guys.” He glances at Elyza. “If Alicia wants me to look at her injury, she can just come knock at my door… at any time.”

 

“I’ll pass the message as soon as she wakes up.” Elyza says.

 

“Try to get some sleep, okay?” Nick, Ofelia and Elyza nod at him in unison. “Goodnight.”

 

He leaves the cup of coffee on the counter and makes his way to the front door, not bothering looking back at them. They all let out a relieved sigh when the door closes again, but they don’t dare to speak until they know he’s really gone.

 

Ofelia looks at Elyza. “I don’t think it’s a good thing to stay here anymore.”

 

The blonde had been thinking the same while they were having the conversation with Shawn. “It would be unwise to stay with the people of someone we killed.” Saying the words out loud is making them realise that it’s not a game, that it’s pretty serious. They killed a human being… and there wasn’t a lot of them remaining. Pre-apocalypse, they would have been sent to prison. Now, there is blurred lines between what’s good and what’s bad, because everything is only about survival.

 

“We should talk about this with the others… and inform Alicia of what we said about Alejandra’s death. In case Shawn asks her and she answers something different than us.” Nick continues.

 

“Do you think Travis and your Mom are still awake?” Ofelia asks Nick, putting her mug and Shawn’s in the sink.

 

He shrugs. “Probably not? But this is like… an emergency, shouldn’t we wake everyone to talk about it?”

 

“We should.” Elyza agrees.

 

 


	39. Chapter 39

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think it's the longest time I've spent without posting an update... sorry guys. Some friends are back in town, I got drunk on Friday night with my boss (she's like 42, but soooo awesome!). Saturday I worked and I finished my shift, at 1 p.m. (gladly earlier, my boss saw the horrible state I was in with only four hours of sleep (because of her) and she decided to cut me). After my shift, I went home and slept from 3 p.m., only woke up once to eat and woke up Sunday morning at 10:30. I was exhausted and needed all this sleep. So yeah, that's why I haven't updated.
> 
> Soooooo.... are they gonna leave Hillrise or nah? ;)

Ofelia decides that she’ll wake up her father, Nick takes care of Madison and Travis, while Elyza is going back to her room to wake up Alicia. She didn’t want to do it, she would have preferred to let her girlfriend sleep for the rest of the night, but their situation is quite urgent and they have to talk about it.

 

She pushes the door and walks slowly in the darkness of their room, trying not to fall on the wooden floor. Elyza hears the soft snores of Alicia, telling her that she is still asleep, and she lets out a sigh, sitting in the bed. “Babe, wake up.” When there’s no answer, she pokes her girlfriend in the ribs to elicit a response.

 

Alicia groans when she feels her girlfriend’s slender fingers nudging her in the ribs and she jerks up, nearly hitting her in the process. “What the fuck.” She pants, looking at Elyza’s eyes, seeing reflects of the moonlight in it.

 

“We need to talk.” Elyza says, a grimace on her lips.

 

“You and I?” Alicia asks, trying not worry too much.

 

The blonde shakes her head. “No, Shawn came to see how you were doing. Now he’s gone, but we think that we could be in trouble for… the Alejandra thing.” She continues explaining. “Richard is kind of freaking out and he wants to go out there as soon as it stops raining. Whether it is day or night, he doesn’t care.”

 

“I see.” Her girlfriend mumbles.

 

“We had to lie to Shawn, but as soon as Richard sees her body, he’ll understand that we _deliberately_ left her in the hole. Not to mention that he’ll probably examine her and see that we shoved a knife in her stomach…” Elyza gulps down nervously. “My guess is that he’ll find out that something happened between her and us… and he’ll blame us for that. We have to think about our next move before he realises that.”

 

Alicia rubs her sleepy eyes and nods, understanding where Elyza is going with her explanations. “You mean, O. is thinking about leaving this place?”

 

“That would be the safest option so far, but we still need to discuss that with Daniel, Travis and your mother.”

“Fine, I’ll be there in two minutes.” Alicia says.

 

“Don’t fall back asleep, okay?” Elyza sees her girlfriend rolling her eyes. “I’m serious, if you’re not in the living room in two minutes, I’ll drag your ass, whether you’re wearing pants or not.”

 

The false threat doesn’t go unheard. “You wouldn’t do that.”

 

Elyza shrugs. “You’re injured, I kind of have the upper hand on you.”

 

“You’re saying that like you _don’t_ have it already.” Alicia smirks and her girlfriend’s jaw drop instantly.

 

* * *

 

Red is creeping in Elyza’s face as she walks out of the room, right after waking up Alicia. Ofelia glances at her, confusion or curiousness written in her eyes, and the blonde doesn’t bother explaining that her girlfriend just made a sexual innuendo because of something she said. Travis, Madison and Daniel are already up, all looking tired – which is completely normal, since they had woken up at a little past 10 o’clock in the evening.

 

Nick had already started to explain to the oldest members of their group the conversation they had with Shawn, when he came to check up how Alicia was doing with her injury. Elyza listens to him, pushing the other thoughts she has in her head, when her girlfriend enters the living room with an oversized sweater and sweatpants.

 

“Hey Alicia, how’s your arm?” Travis asks, putting a hand on his stepdaughter’s shoulder.

 

“Hurts a lot, I took some pain medication before going to sleep, but I think it’s not strong enough.” She explains. “I believe my Mom filled you in with what happened?”

 

“She did.” He tells her. “I just hope you’re going to be fine.”

 

“I think I will be… so far, there’s only the pain from the bite.”

 

“Bite?” David asks, looking down at Alicia’s arm.

 

The brunette winces and starts explaining. “Yeah, Alejandra got bitten when she didn’t pay attention, pointing her gun to Elyza’s face… long story short, we were fighting and she bit me, probably thinking that it would affect me.”

 

“I see… we should have been more cautious about them.” The Salvadoran man says. “I knew there was something up with these people.”

 

Madison lets out a sigh. “It’s not them, it was only Alejandra.”

 

“The others will figure out sooner or later. _Richard_ will find out and then we’ll be in big trouble.” Nick points out. “Even if they don’t know that she attacked us because she knew about Greg and his buddy, they’ll end up blaming Alejandra’s death on us. And Emma’s and Alistair’s.”

 

Travis looks at Nick. “So you think that would be better for us to leave Hillrise.”

 

“I think, right now, that it’s our only option.”

 

Alicia tries to be reasonable. “If we leave, we put _safety_ behind our back. A community that has walls.”

 

“Also people that will want us dead real soon.” Ofelia counters, crossing her arms on her chest. “We can’t keep lying to them, it’s too dangerous.”

 

“What if we stay a little and see how it goes?” Madison proposes.

 

Nick and Ofelia shake their head simultaneously. “We shouldn’t do that… we would risk too much. Lysha is already injured.” Nick says, giving them a serious look. “We can’t just stay put and hope that everything will be fine. We have to do something before it gets ugly.”

 

“I think we should vote.” Alicia and Nick’s mother says. “That way we have a clear idea of what each of us want. Who wants to leave?” Nick, Ofelia, Daniel, Travis and Elyza raise their hands. Madison looks at her daughter and asks: “Does that mean you don’t want to leave?”

 

“It means that I’m uncertain, but if the majority of us wants to leave, I’ll follow too.” Alicia answers.

 

Travis looks at his fiancée. “And you, do you want to say?”

 

Madison pinches her lips for a few seconds. “I want to follow my children and you, wherever you go.”

 

“I think that’s settled, then.” Nick says. “Five persons out of seven want to leave this place. If Mom and Lysha say that they’ll follow, we might as well start packing now.”

 

They all look at each other. “Maybe in the morning?” Alicia proposes. “We’re all tired and could use a good night sleep… and it’s dangerous to take the cars in the middle of the night, with walkers and everything.”

 

“It would be better leaving before sunrise.” Daniel points out. “If we want to go unnoticed.”

 

“Okay, everyone go get some sleep.” Travis tells them. “I’ll wake you up at five to pack and, as soon as we are finished with packing, we leave. Everyone agree with that?” When everyone nods, he lets out a sigh. “Good.”

 

* * *

 

Elyza didn’t get a good night of sleep, because she kept watching over Alicia to see how she was doing with her arm, if she started getting feverish. The brunette opened her eyes a few time and stirred, but she fell back asleep as quickly as she woke up; she was tired and deserved a good night of sleep. Elyza tried to hold their bodies together, but she felt too warn and needed to put some space between them before suffocating. Alicia doesn’t notice it and keeps sleeping.

 

When Travis knocks at their door to wake them up, Elyza is already prepared. Her backpack is ready, so is Alicia’s because she wanted to let her girlfriend have a little more rest. “Keep sleeping sweet cheeks, I’ll wake you up five minutes before we leave, alright?” As soon as the words leave the blonde’s mouth, Alicia is already back asleep, face pressed against her pillow – and Elyza’s.

 

Fifteen minutes later, she wakes Alicia up with soft kisses in her neck, on her jaw and cheeks. Eyes fluttering open, a small smile creeps on the brunette’s lips as she grabs Elyza’s hips and presses them flush together.

 

Elyza shivers and leans to Alicia’s lips, trying to slow things down. “Alicia, we need to get going.” Alicia lets out a groan and her girlfriend is already back on her feet. “I’ll change your bandage after you’re done using the bathroom.”

 

Alicia struggles with the desire of staying in bed to sleep or getting ready to leave Hillrise when it’s still dark. She doesn’t have much of a choice, because Elyza is there to remind her – again – that she needs to move before Travis or Madison comes in the room to drag her ass out of the house.

 

She does her routine – using the toilet, brushing her teeth and then her hair – before coming back to the room to change her clothes. She decides that yoga pants and a plain t-shirt will do it, because she doesn’t need to look fabulous while escaping this place… because that’s what they’re doing. They’re escaping Hillrise.

 

“Let me look at that.” Elyza tells her, a soft smile on her lips. The First-Aid kit is already open and Alicia silently thanks God that she found the best girlfriend in the world in the middle of the apocalypse. She removes the bandage slowly and looks at the bite wound in her girlfriend’s skin. “There’s no signs of infection. On a scale from one to ten, how bad is the pain?”

 

“I’d say eight.” Alicia answers, looking at the blonde covering her injury with a new and clean bandage. “It hurts whenever I move my hand or fingers…”

 

Elyza lets out a sigh. “You think you’re gonna have a hard time with walkers?”

 

“Yeah, I think so.”

 

“We’ll pass the word, then.” Elyza presses a soft kiss to her girlfriend’s forehead, after she finishes with the bandage. “Come on, let’s get going.”

 

* * *

 

They finally get out of the room, Alicia still sleepy, though they’re not the last ones ready to go. Surprisingly, it’s Ofelia, who decided to take a shower after Alicia did her business in the bathroom, and Nick, who fell back asleep after Travis woke him up.

 

Nick is still wearing the sweatpants he uses as pyjamas. It takes five more minutes for him and Ofelia to be ready. In the meantime, the rest of the group decides to have one last meal in Hillrise, not wanting to leave the community with an empty stomach, since they don’t know when their next meal will be.

 

They’re nervous about a few things. They want to leave the community and want to be unnoticed… but it stopped raining and they know there will be a guard at the fence. He’ll see them and probably alert the others, Richard, and no one particularly want to face the leader while they’re trying to sneak out of Hillrise.

 

“We should take the cars.” Daniel proposes to Travis, while they’re getting out of the house, after turning all the lights off.

 

“Everyone will know that we’re leaving… and then they’ll get suspicious, because we didn’t tell anyone the reason why.” Travis says.

 

Madison shakes her head. “They’ll figure out sooner or later that something happened with Alejandra. If we take the cars, it’ll be easier for us to get out of here. Especially if they’re trying to stop us.” She releases a deep sigh. “I don’t think we’ll make it out there if we’re on our feet.”

 

“I think Madison is right.” Elyza agrees.

 

It’s still dark outside. When they look at the other houses, there’s no lights on, except Richard’s. They all figured out that he would be up by now to find Alejandra’s body. They need to get out of the community quickly, if they don’t want to talk to them. The fresh air hits them and Alicia’s body shivers against her will. Elyza offers her hand and Alicia links their fingers together.

 

They walk to the cars and start putting their backpacks inside of them. Travis will drive the SUV while Madison will take the Sedan. “Everyone ready?” He asks the group. Everyone seems nervous, including Travis, but they need to get out of there for their own good.

 

Some of them nod, the others say words of approval. It doesn’t take long before they’re all in their cars; Madison, Daniel and Ofelia in the Sedan and Travis, Nick, Alicia and Elyza in the SUV. They start the engines, but don’t turn on the lights. It’s more suspicious, but turning on the lights probably would wake the other members of the community.

 

When they arrive to the fence, Donovan is at his post. He goes down the ladder and walks towards the SUV to talk with Travis. “Where are you guys going?” He asks him.

 

There’s no need to lie at this point, since they’re a moment away from leaving this place. “We’re leaving.”

 

“Leaving? Does Richard knows about this?” Donovan wonders.

 

Travis shrugs. “He said that we could leave whenever we wanted.” It’s not a lie, not really. Richard did told them that they could leave if they didn’t appreciated the place or just wanted to continue their route.

 

“Okay.” He doesn’t look so sure about this. “Why leaving this early? The sun’s not even up.”

 

Nick answers this time. “It’s easier to travel in the morning and we have all day to look around for a house to sleep in.” He gives him a smile from the front passenger’s side.

 

Donovan doesn’t seem to know what he should do about this; let them pass or alert Richard that the strangers they welcomed with arms wide open are trying to leave? “Maybe I should just tell Richard…”

 

Elyza sighs, looking at the young man that has probably around Nick’s age. “Look, he just lost Alejandra, I don’t think we should bother him too much today. And… he’s already out there, isn’t he?” Donovan nods in agreement. “We’ll go to help him and say goodbye.”

 

“Fine.” He says, still not certain of his decision. “You can go. Good luck, guys.”

 

“Thank you.” Travis tells him as Donovan walks towards the gates to let them pass.

 

Donovan smiles at them one last time. Everyone lets out a sigh of relief as they exit the community’s perimeter. Elyza can’t believe that Donovan let them pass without more questions or asking if he could come with them to see Richard. That was just an easy exit and they shouldn’t have stressed about it that much.

 

 


	40. Chapter 40

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 4.9k to make it up to you. 
> 
> Warning: someone dies... stuff happens. Hope you still like me after reading this chapter.

As soon as they left Hillrise, Alicia leaned her head on Elyza’s shoulder to continue sleeping. It doesn’t bother the blonde, in fact she prefers to know her girlfriend still can sleep. It will be easier for her injury to heal if she doesn’t move too much her arm in the process. Elyza looks around at the abandoned houses, cars and streets, reminding herself that they were buzzing with life less than a year ago. Things changed a lot. How could she describe the world? Death everywhere, primal needs such as food, water and survival… a world where no one is safe wherever they are. Thinking otherwise would be foolish. Death can get to you whenever it wants and wherever you are; nothing is going to stop it from taking you. Elyza understood that a while ago and is getting along with the idea that no one is safe from others or themselves, although she will not stop fighting.

 

She looks at the first rays of sunlight in the sky with a small smile on her lips. Even with the ongoing apocalypse, there are still beautiful things to witness, such as this sunrise or Alicia sleeping peacefully on her shoulder. Elyza misses her old life; she appreciated the simple things, like having a cup of coffee in the morning or watching cartoons with her little brother, Trevor. She misses that sometimes she had to run to catch up her bus because she woke up late. She misses her family, her friends and she would do anything just to go back in time to see them smile. She feels nostalgic and hates the memories she has from the world before this one, because she can’t change a damn thing. Thankfully, she has Alicia at her sides. If not for her, Elyza doesn’t know what she would do.

 

Travis drives carefully, avoiding the lone walkers moving towards their vehicle. He has a serious look on his face, probably thinking of their next move. Everyone always rely on him in these situations. He has the mind of a leaver and the blonde respects that about him. Even if he didn’t needed to, he always protected her. He helped her when she was in bad shape, after their car accident with Jordan. He helped her several more times to fight walkers. Madison did her part too, but Travis always accepted her in their group, unlike Alicia’s mother who didn’t acknowledged Elyza’s love for Alicia.

 

Nick decides to put music on to kill time. It’s an old CD and Elyza doesn’t know the artist, but she hums along with him to the song playing. She is glad that they all wanted to leave Hillrise. Except for Alejandra, people there were nice, but she knew that things wouldn’t have been nice for too long, especially with Richard grieving. The blonde thinks that they got out of the community just in time before Richard realised that Alejandra wasn’t dead because of the walkers, but because of them. She had been bitten, yes… but she tried to kill Elyza, she bit Alicia and they had no choice but to put her down.

 

She would have never thought that leaving Hillrise would be so easy. They told Donovan that they wanted to leave and that they’ll see Richard and that was all. He let them pass without asking more questions. Elyza worries that this could have consequences on them. What if he alerted Richard about them and he realised that Nick, Ofelia, Alicia and her killed Alejandra? What if he wants them dead? Richard warned the group when they arrived in the community. His people accepts strangers inside of their walls, but he warned them that they didn’t tolerate bad people. He mentioned taking care of them, but not going in the details. What if, in Richard’s eyes, they were bad people because of what happened with Alejandra?

 

Alicia opens an eye when Travis makes a turn, feeling herself being separated from Elyza’s shoulder. She sees her girlfriend looking through the window, a worried or nostalgic look on her face – or both. Alicia knows that all of this is hard on her; Elyza lost her family and she is a teenager in an unfair world. She does her best to keep her head above the water, but she can’t control the things that are happening to them. “Elyza.”

 

The blonde hears Alicia whispering her name and snaps her eyes from the window. “Yeah?” She says, plunging her blue eyes in hers. A smile tugs at the brunette’s lips when she sees Elyza’s face softening.

 

“You’re thinking too loud.” Alicia tells her, a hand finding her girlfriend’s thigh, her thumb rubbing gently on the rough material of her jeans. She doesn’t want Elyza to think about what is going to happen next. Whatever happens, they’ll be together and that’s what counts.

 

Elyza can’t help but smile at Alicia. “How are you feeling?” She spent a long time thinking about her injury. What if Alejandra spread the infection to Alicia? The blonde has no idea of how to deal with something like that and she can’t think of losing someone else.

 

“I told you, I’m fine. You should really stop worrying and get some sleep, I know you almost didn’t sleep last night.”

 

Alicia is right. She started to sleep at a very late hour and she thinks that, in the end, she might have accumulated around thirty minutes of sleep before Travis knocked at their door to wake them up. “You know I can’t stop worrying, right?” She puts a hand over Alicia’s, linking their fingers together. “I won’t stop asking until your wound has completely healed.” The brunette gives Elyza a knowing look and puts her head against her shoulder once more.

 

“We’re gonna be fine too.” She mumbles, drifting back to sleep. Elyza wishes that they could know what happens next, to know at least if all of them will make it, but she can’t. Alicia’s words are meant to be reassuring, but Elyza knows that things are not this easy. They already lost Chris at the farm. It was unexpected and they all know how it still affects Travis.

 

Elyza looks in front of her, fixing the road and the few walkers shuffling aimlessly. They are one of the few left on Earth; the others are all monsters, dead people coming back to life, _walking dead_. They survived the outbreak because of luck or skills, it doesn’t matter. What matter is they survived and now they are here.

 

* * *

 

It was too good to be true, to think that they could sneak out of Hillrise without anyone following them. At first, they didn’t see the person coming towards them. Hell, they didn’t even see that they were followed by someone. It’s Elyza who realised that she was hearing a particular sound.

 

“Is that a motorcycle?” She asks. The sound is getting more and clearer to her ears and she realises that it is definitely a motorcycle. “We’re being followed.” Alicia stirs and opens her eyes slowly, as Elyza turns her body to look behind them through the windows.

 

She sees Madison with an angry scold. “What do we do?” Elyza doesn’t bother turning her head towards Travis, but the question is directed to him. She feels panic coursing through her veins; she can’t see the driver of the motorcycle, but figures that, whoever it is, he or she probably comes from the community. Elyza doesn’t particularly want another fight; Alicia is pretty much unfit to fight and Daniel is still recovering from his gunshot wound in the shoulder.

 

Travis bites his lower lip, trying to evaluate the situation. There was no walkers around them and they were armed to the teeth. They won’t have to face a group, since it’s only a motorcycle, which means only one or two persons. “We stop.” He says with a serious tone, breaking slowly.

 

Elyza snaps her head in his direction and frowns, about to complain about the decision, when Alicia puts a warm hand on her cheeks. “They’re outnumbered. One or two against the seven of us… don’t worry.”

 

“They have guns.” Elyza points out, as the car slows down until it finally stops.

 

Alicia lets out a sigh. “We have guns too.” She doesn’t know why Elyza is so nervous about this, but she really is.

 

Madison stops the Sedan at the SUV’s left side. She gives a look to her fiancé and he lowers the window. “We’re just going to talk to them, right?” She asks him.

 

“Yes, but everyone should be ready to use their guns. Just in case.” Travis answers.

 

“I don’t like this idea.” Nick mutters to himself.

 

It’s true; there’s something very disturbing about being in a car, about to meet someone that possibly wants you dead. The group might have guns with them and know how to use them, but they’re still confined into cars with no possibilities to escape if something goes wrong. Alicia and Elyza soon understands that. The motorcyclist has the upper hand on them.

 

The motorcycle slowly stops and Elyza takes her gun in her hands, removing the safety. She’s willing to shoot first if it means that she can protect Alicia. The brunette gives her a glance and takes out her gun too.

 

They don’t know who it is, because the person wears a dark helmet and they can’t see through the visor, which certainly makes the situation tenser. The motorcyclist is alone, but he didn’t come without weapons too. They all can see the pistols in their holsters. The person doesn’t make any moves to reach for them, but Elyza still holds her pistol firmly, her index on the trigger guard, just in case.

 

Daniel isn’t afraid to point is firearm directly towards the person. “Who are you?” He asks, giving the motorcyclist a fierce glace. “Why are you following us?”

 

The person removes their hands from the hand clutch and leans back on the motorcycle, boots touching the ground for balance. “Let met remove my helmet and we’ll talk.” It’s a man’s voice and Elyza recognizes it from someone at Hillrise. _Not Richard_ , thought. She lets out a sigh of relief, but they’re not out of the woods yet.

 

The man raises his hands up slowly and removes the helmet.

 

“Donovan?” Travis says, dumbfounded.

 

No one was really prepared to find out that it was him, the guy on the guard post when they left Hillrise for good. They stare at him for a moment, as he keeps quiet, letting them understand that he was there - no matter the reason he is here for. A smirk appears at his lips when he hears Nick mutter a “what the fuck” to himself.

 

“Not really happy to see me?” He asks, looking at Travis intensely.

 

They had been driving for thirty minutes at the most… and they had been followed by Donovan all this time. There’s a spark of anger blossoming in Elyza’s chest, because she wishes he had made his move and showed himself a long time before, right when they left the community. She only hopes that he’s not there to take them back to Hillrise, because she will not go without a fight.

 

Donovan stops the engine of his motorcycle. “Okay, you guys look all confused… and not very welcoming.” He says, his smirk not disappearing. “I didn’t want to stay in Hillrise anymore, so I followed you.”

 

“Care to enlighten us a little? Why?” Madison demands, her tone harsh.

 

“Everyone I loved died and now… I’m alone. I don’t think anyone is going to accept me back there, not since my father’s death, two months ago.” Donovan explains. “I never really fit in the group, because I don’t like to take orders.”

 

Travis isn’t sure if he should believe the man or not. After all, after what happened with Alejandra, trusting anyone seems nearly impossible. “And they let you go without asking questions?”

 

“I said that I was going to search for you. They were quite mad that you left without saying goodbyes.” He shrugs. “Richard wanted to come with me, but Shawn told him that it wasn’t wise according that he just lost his girlfriend.”

 

Elyza shakes her head. “Something doesn’t fit with your story. Why is Shawn not here, then?”

 

Donovan looks at the blonde. “With Ofelia gone, he has to take care of Emma and Alistair. He didn’t want to leave them while they’re on their deathbeds.”

 

“Why are you alone then?” Travis continues. “You said that you don’t really fit with them and you don’t really take orders from them… so why would they trust you, out of everyone in Hillrise, to find us?”

 

“I have nothing left and I’m not afraid of what happens out there, maybe?” He says. “I don’t know, guys. I don’t care if they trust me to take you back or something, I just know that now I’m out and I want to be with you.”

 

“Why?”

 

“Better chances at survival than with them. Some know how to fight, but they were mostly the military people that had been there since the outbreak. If the walls fall down or we were attacked by another group, we wouldn’t last long.” He takes a deep breath. “You’ve been out there for a while, you all know how it works.”

 

Travis glances at Madison and a silence settles between them for a moment. “What makes you think that we want you to become a part of our group?”

 

“I’m not really asking to become one of you… Just to fight at your sides. To survive together.”

 

“That’s asking a lot, considering that we don’t know you at all.” Madison points out. Travis nods, approving his fiancée’s words. “If we’re fighting walkers, would you risk your life to save one of ours?”

 

They all see the hesitation in Donovan’s eyes. “If I would be in danger, would one of you try to save me?” There’s way too much questions being asked for Alicia. “Look, I just don’t think I could make it out on my own out there.”

 

“I did.” Elyza says.

 

“You know what I mean.” Donovan continues. “It’s better to survive in group than alone. And honestly, I think I might go crazy if I end up dying alone.”

 

“Fine.” Travis looks at the man in the eyes. “You can stay with us for a while, but if we decide that it’s better to part, you’ll have to leave.”

 

“Understood.”

 

“One last thing.” Elyza unbuckles her seatbelt. “You let me drive your bike.” Donovan rolls his eyes but the blonde shakes her head. “I’m not kidding.”

 

“… Uh, okay.”

 

* * *

 

Elyza is very happy that she didn’t gave a choice to Donovan with his motorcycle. It has been a while since she drove one, but this one is pretty easy. It’s a Harley Davisdon, a Fatboy judging by the model. There’s a little bit of rust on it, but the blonde judges that it’s a model between 2002 and 2005. She loves the color; charcoal grey. Her dad had one similar before Trevor’s birth. He sold it because it wasn’t very practical to travel with a baby.

 

Stubborn as she is, she refused to use Donovan’s helmet, preferring to have the wind blowing in her hair. She doesn’t care if they’re on the road for a long while, because she enjoys every second that she spends on this bike. Of course, she has to be careful to avoid the walkers, but other than that, she feels free.

 

Alicia, on the other hand, is a little bit jealous that she can’t enjoy their newest addition to the group. She’s sitting on the backseat of the SUV with Donovan and she gives him the silent treatment; she doesn’t know him and doesn’t really want to make small talk. He told them his intentions, but Alicia doesn’t believe for a second that he truly wants to be there with them. This can be a ruse. He could be waiting for Richard and the others, slowing her group down.

 

Donovan seems uncomfortable to be on the backseat with her. Travis stopped the music as soon as he got in the car, but they don’t talk. Alicia would have preferred to be on the Harley Davidson with her girlfriend. At least she would have enjoyed it a little.

 

“Where are we going?” Donovan asks reluctantly, looking in the rear mirror to catch Travis’s glance.

 

Travis lets out a sigh. “Somewhere.”

 

“So what, you’re not going to tell because you don’t trust me?” He frowns.

 

If Alicia wouldn’t be injured, she would have smacked Donovan behind the head for being impatient and giving them attitude. He is taller than her from at least a foot, but she wouldn’t have cared about it. “Exactly.”

 

“Alicia.” Travis says warningly, earning a scoff from the young brunette. “Donovan, we don’t know where we are heading. We just wanted to be out of Hillrise.”

 

“… May I ask, at least, what happened with Alejandra?”

 

Before her stepfather could say anything, Alicia speaks up. “She tried to kill Elyza, she got bit, we stabbed her in the stomach and let her die in a hole.” Travis glares at her in the rear mirror. “What? That sums up.”

 

“Okay. Wow.” Donovan breathes out.

 

“It’s more complicated than that.” Travis says. “We were already thinking about leaving before Alejandra’s death.” It’s a little lie, but what Donovan doesn’t know is best for Alicia’s group. “Some of us think that staying between walls isn’t the best for us. We’ve done that once and my son got sick.”

 

“I believe he didn’t make it?”

 

“No.” Travis sighs. “You look a bit like him, you know? Just a lot older.”

 

Donovan is in his mid-thirties with dark brown curvy hair and a finely shaved beard. He has piercing brown eyes, – unlike Chris – a large jaw and wears a pair of Ray Ban glasses. He is not as bulky as Richard, but he has large biceps. Alicia heard someone say, during their welcoming party at Hillrise, that he was a fitness trainer or something like that. With his body, she could believe it. She realises the similarities and resemblance he has with Chris and she is stunned. He even asks as many question as Chris would have.

 

He doesn’t say anything after Travis told him that he resemble his son. It’s an uncomfortable silence and Alicia itches to break it, wanting to ask her stepfather if they could stop the car a minute, just for the time she joins Elyza on the motorcycle. But she knows he will say no because Madison was most likely going to say no too.

 

They’ve been driving for forty five minutes – still with the uncomfortable silence – when Nick speaks up. “Maybe we should stop for a while, I’m hungry and I bet the others are too?”

 

“I am.” Donovan points out.

 

Alicia, who was about to say that she was hungry too, keeps her mouth shut and looks through the windows. Elyza is riding Donovan’s Harley Davidson right beside the SUV. She smiles, knowing that her girlfriend would watch over her just in case anything happens – either with the bite from Alejandra or Donovan.

 

“Okay, I see a gas station right there.” Travis says, pointing in the direction with his index. “We’ll stop for half an hour to eat and decide what’s next.”

 

“Sounds good to me.” Nick agrees.

 

* * *

 

Travis pulls over in the parking lot of said gas station, followed by Madison in the Sedan and Elyza on the motorcycle. There’s a few cars parked at the dispensers and Alicia imagines that there will definitely be walkers inside of the store. There are suitcases open and clothes scattered on the ground, not something unusual for them by not. They were already accustomed to things left behind by haste.

 

“Looks like we have company.” Daniel says after everyone is out of their vehicles.

 

They make sure that no walkers would take them by surprise from behind and start walking towards the cars. There’s one infected that sees them and presses its face against the windshield of a Jeep, trying to reach for them through the glass. They’ll take care of this one later, because another one is coming in their direction, mouth hanging open. Its teeth are rotting and have a disgusting color mixed between dark brown and red – a sign that it ate probably not so long ago. Its clothes are stained with dry blood and dust. Alicia grimaces at the sight, because it’s repulsive to see this amount of bite marks on what used to be a man; on the neck, on its arms… even on its stomach, where everyone could see the guts spilling out. A walker probably feasted on him before the man turned into a walker himself.

 

Elyza glances at Donovan and the man looks more horrified than the rest of them. “You think you can take care of this walker?” She points out the one with guts spilling from its stomach. “I’ll take care of the one behind.” She continues, looking at a younger walker, probably a teenager when it turned.

 

“Uh, sure.” Donovan answers, moving to take out his gun from its holster.

 

Alicia takes his wrist, wincing at the pain from her bite wound. “Are you kidding me?” She tells him. “No guns! It will draw more of them!”

 

“Sorry!” He excuses himself, looking like a lost puppy.

 

Elyza lets out a groan. “Okay, Donovan stays behind. Travis, could you give me a hand, please?”

 

Travis gives her a nod of approval and they walk towards the two walkers, ignoring the one in the Jeep. Elyza takes out her hunting knife and sticks it in the first walker’s head. Travis takes care of the other one as quickly as the blonde did. They wipe their weapons on the stained clothes and walk back to the others.

 

“See, this wasn’t very difficult.” Elyza mutters to herself, getting closer to Alicia. They smile at each other for a second before their heads snap to see Donovan, being asked several questions by Daniel and Travis.

 

Everyone knows the Salvadoran man isn’t one to trust easily, especially when it comes to kill walkers. He needs to know who is capable of handling a situation and, as the couple can see, he judged that Donovan isn’t capable of that. “How long have you been out there since the outbreak?” Daniel asks him, a displeased look on his face.

 

“I… I’ve been on the supply runs a few times with Richard.” He answers.

 

“You said that you were not afraid of what happens out there.” Travis points out. “You can’t rely on us to save your life, because we have to watch our backs first. From now on, don’t use guns. Except if it’s a last resort to defend yourself or someone else.”

 

Donovan sighs. “I’m not afraid to kill rotters.”

 

“Then prove it to us.” Daniel groans. “Or we might as well kill you ourselves.”

 

“Does he always threatens people like that?” Donovan says, pointing at Daniel.

 

Ofelia shakes her head. “We don’t trust you and, if we’re not sure that you can handle yourself, we can’t let you go back to Hillrise.” She gives him a smile. “My _papa_ served for the Salvadoran Junta before emigrating to LA. He tortured my ex-boyfriend after the outbreak to get the information we needed. Yes, he _always_ threatens people like this and you shouldn’t take this lightly.”

 

Elyza sees a smirk appearing at Daniel’s lips, after his daughter’s words. “See if there’s walkers in the store, we’re going to wait for you here.” The blonde says.

 

Donovan nods and takes out his knife, slowly approaching the door. Everyone can see that it is not something he is used too; Richard must have been gentle with him and offered to kill walkers for him. Maybe it’s just the peer pressure making him look weak like this. If Alicia wasn’t injured, she would have agreed to walk into the store with him, only to see how he is doing or something like that. She feels nervous as she sees him put a hand on the door and opens it.

 

“Is he really going in there without drawing the walkers outside?” Nick says lowly, looking at Alicia and Elyza.

 

His sister grimaces. “Maybe we should help him.”

 

The blonde shakes her head negatively. “He has to prove to us that he’s capable of killing walkers.”

 

“What if he gets bit or killed? That would be our fault.” Alicia says.

 

Daniel lets out a sigh. “That would be his. For wanting to prove himself and leaving Hillrise to find us.”

 

They look as the door closes and Donovan’s body disappear. None of them dare making another sound, listening if they could hear something from inside the store. Nothing. That means that Donovan is still walking and exploring, making sure that there are no walkers. Alicia doesn’t like this idea, because if something happens to him, they could regret it. He could be useful for them.

 

They wait, making sure that there wasn’t any infected coming towards us. Nick obviously can’t wait and do nothing, so he takes care of the walker inside of the Jeep and starts searching for anything that would be interesting for them – food, weapons… ~~condoms~~.

 

It takes five minutes before Donovan pushes the door open with a smile on his lips. “There was just one behind the counter and that’s all.” He says proudly.

 

“Did you check the bathr–” Daniel doesn’t even have time to finish his question that a walker surges from behind Donovan and sinks its teeth in his neck.

 

He lets out a cry of pain and struggles for a few seconds, before dropping to his knees, eyes wide open. The walker takes another bite and pulls back with the flesh between its teeth. Everyone is horrified, except Daniel, who looks maybe disappointed. Blood soaks Donovan’s t-shirt and he makes a gagging sound, trying to say something. When the walker decides it’s a good moment to feast on his ear, Travis takes out his gun. Maybe they didn’t want him in the group, but that didn’t mean that they were not compassionate. No one wants him to suffer as a walker devours him alive.

 

“I’m sorry.” He says, before pressing on the trigger three times – first to kill Donovan, secondly to kill the walker, but he missed.

 

They don’t move for another long minute, watching at the two dead bodies laying on the ground, blood everywhere and the door not quite close because Donovan’s legs are in the way. Alicia is speechless and she adverts her gaze, not wanting to look at the man’s lifeless body, knowing that they could have prevented his death. She feels horrible, because it’s _not_ something they said they’d do one day, to let someone die without doing nothing and just watch. She feels hot and wants to throw up her breakfast.

 

“We should go.” Daniel tells them. “Before walkers come for us.”

 

Three gunshots would probably draw a lot of walkers in their direction. Elyza grimaces and walks towards Donovan’s body, crouching to take his knife and gun. You never know when you can need those. She looks at the bite in his neck for a second and adverts her gaze, holding the weapons in her hands. Does she regret letting him go inside of the store alone? Not really. He wouldn’t have made it on his own out there, not like she did for all those months. She just feels bad because she’s taking the two things that could have helped him to stay alive – his gun and his knife.

 

She didn’t hear Travis getting closer to her and she is startled when he puts a hand on her shoulder, nearly knocking him off as she stands up. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to startle you.” He says, offering her a smile. “Come on, let’s go.”

 

Elyza looks down at Donovan one last time before walking up to their vehicles rapidly, Travis behind her. She glances at Alicia, already at the backseat of the SUV, and hops in.

 

They don’t know in which direction they are going or what they are going to do now, but Travis starts the engine and they leave the parking lot of the gas station without one more word. Alicia’s head is resting against the window and she is not bothered by the vibrations or simply not caring about it. She finds Elyza’s hand, wanting to feel her warmth and the comforting stroke of her thumb on the back of her hand. The blonde looks right in front of her, at the cars, at the walkers on the road, with a strange sensation in her veins. She tries to decipher what it is, but she can’t put a word to it.

 

Another hour passes before Travis and Nick start to make small talk to kill time. That’s when Elyza realises what she is feeling; guilt. Sure, she feels guilty because they let Donovan die without bringing him help… but she mostly feels guilty because of something in particular. She swallows with difficulty and looks down at the knife she had been holding all this time, where the initials D.T. are carved in the handle.

 

She forgot to offer him something for his passage to another world.

 

 


	41. Chapter 41

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sad stuff and then fluff. It's a lighter chapter, I think we deserved that.

It’s the middle of the day when the group decides to settle down. Most of them have lack of sleep from the night before and they don’t want to be on the road anymore. Donovan’s rather tragic death shook them a little and they all feel guilty, thinking that they shouldn’t have left him alone in the gas station’s shop. They decided on a house in a suburb, far from other houses and where they didn’t see many walkers roaming around. It’s a small bungalow with dark brown bricks. It has a decrepit air, but it probably used to be a beautiful place before the outbreak.

 

They knocked at the door and waited for possible threats to come out of the house. After a moment, they decided to enter, navigating carefully in the hallways. They teamed up; Travis with Daniel, Ofelia with Nick and Elyza, Alicia and Madison together. Since they’re not a pair number, someone either has to be alone or tag along with another pair.

 

They find out that the house is abandoned and there’s a weight off their shoulders; they didn’t feel like having to kill a walker inside and dragging its body outside. The bungalow smells like dust and most, but it’s odors they were used to, after spending a few weeks on the run, after leaving the Abigail, Strand’s boat. After searching all the rooms, they all gather in the living room area to eat. Silence reigns, only interrupted by the occasional chewing sounds. They’re still replaying Donovan’s death in their minds, especially Elyza, who feels horrible for not leaving anything behind for the man.

 

“Shouldn’t we talk about this?” Nick asks them reluctantly, his hands fiddling with his spoon. Not wanting to elaborate on what, as they all already know he’s talking about Donovan, he shoves another spoonful of his creamy corn.

 

Alicia glances at Elyza, who is sitting on the wooden floor at her side. The blonde barely touched her food – a can of Chunky’s chicken noodle soup – and she doesn’t even move an inch when she feels her girlfriend’s gaze on her. She is obviously not in the mood to talk about her feelings, so Alicia doesn’t push. She puts a warm hand on Elyza’s wrist and strokes her thumb on her skin.

 

Nick lets out a sigh of annoyance. “Come on guys, we’ve made a bad decision and someone died because of that!”

 

“We should focus on what’s next.” Daniel says, a serious look on his face. “We need to make sure that no one else from followed us, because if someone did… they saw what happened at the gas station and they’re gonna blame it on us.”

 

“Because it’s on us, Daniel!”

 

“Nicholas.” Madison gives her son a warning look. “Daniel is right, we need to talk about what we’re gonna do now. What happened is our fault, I can accord you that, but we can change nothing about that.” Nick rolls his eyes and shakes his head disapprovingly. Madison continues to try and reason him. “Come on, Nick… he followed us from Hillrise, we couldn’t trust him in any circumstances. He could’ve wait for the right moment to stab us in the back, you know that too.”

 

“He was a _human_ and we don’t kill other humans, Mom!” He snaps, getting up on his feet. “We are not like this, we don’t decide anyone’s faith and we’re supposed to support each other!”

 

There’s an uncomfortable silence for a few more seconds. Elyza swallows down with difficulty and stands up, Alicia looking at her with a curious gaze. No one speaks as she leaves the living room, moving to the room where she and Alicia decided to sleep in. The brunette feels her throat tightening as she watches her girlfriend leave. Madison glances at her and gives her a nod, indicating that she could join Elyza. She doesn’t wait one more second before standing up and following the blonde in the room.

 

The door is open when she walks in. Alicia closes it to give them a little more intimacy and she bites the insides of her cheeks when she turns and sees Elyza’s glossy eyes. Elyza’s back is pressed against the bedhead and her arms are circling her knees. Alicia murmurs a brief “hey” to get the blonde’s attention, as she moves closer to the bed to sit on it.

 

“I’m sorry, I didn’t wanted to worry about me.” She breathes out.

 

“You’re not the only one who worries too much here.” Alicia smiles at her girlfriend.

 

Elyza lets out a wet chuckles and wipes the tears at her eyes. “Sorry, I just… I feel like an awful person.” She buries her head between her arms for a second. Alicia gets closer, putting an arm around her girlfriend’s shoulders, pressing the side of her head against Elyza’s.

 

“It’s okay, babe. You don’t have to explain yourself with me, I understand you.”

 

“Can we just lay down and take a nap?”

Alicia smiles and nods. “Whatever you need, babe.”

 

They move to lay down on their sides, Alicia being the large spoon and Elyza the little spoon – in normal circumstances, the brunette would have definitely been the little spoon. Alicia wraps her arms around her girlfriend’s middle, hands resting on her stomach, and presses her forehead against the back of her neck. It’s a comfortable position and they quickly fall asleep.

 

* * *

 

They wake up around the same time, not knowing what time it is. Elyza stirs and looks outside the window through the dark curtains; she’s certain that they slept for a while and it’s too bright outside. She understands that it’s the morning and feels relieved that they could sleep without being bothered. Alicia opens her eyes to Elyza looking at the ceiling. In their sleep, they changed position; the blonde moved to lay on her back, while Alicia cuddled up at her girlfriend’s sides, entwining their legs together. She nudges Elyza’s foot with hers to get her attention.

 

Elyza turns her head towards Alicia and a smile appears on her lips. Her ocean blue eyes locks with the brunette’s emerald green eyes and they stare at each other for a while, not wanting to break their moment. It’s Elyza who decides to say something first. “Good morning, sweet cheeks.” She has a sleepy yet husky voice in the morning and Alicia can’t help but think it’s cute.

 

Smiling back at her, Alicia moves to press a kiss to her girlfriend’s jaw. “Mornin’.” She’s not against staying in bed for a few more minutes; she can still wait to use the bathroom. Nothing is urgent. She even hears voices coming from the living room, indicating her that a few members of their group were already awake.

 

“How’s your arm?” Elyza nudges at her forehead with the tip of her nose, before pressing a kiss on Alicia’s lips. Screw morning breath.

 

Alicia hums into the kiss before pulling away just a bit. “It’s been two days, I don’t expect the pain to lessen quickly. It still hurts, I should take pain medication to help with the pain... but I think I’m too lazy and I want to stay a little more in bed with you.”

 

“We should change your bandages… we forgot to do it yesterday. I don’t even want to think of the risks that could bring an infection.” Elyza lets out a sigh.

 

Elyza moves and only have the time to prop herself on one elbow before Alicia is stopping her, putting a hand on her shoulder. “Please, stay in bed with me a few more minutes.”

 

“Babe… what if you lose your arm?” The blonde says with a dramatic voice, putting one hand over her heart. “Think of all you can do to me with two hands. Shouldn’t that be encouraging for you?”

 

“You’re incredible.” Alicia lets out a raspy chuckle.

 

“I know that already, but thank you.” Elyza watches her girlfriend as she rolls her eyes at her. “Oh, come on, is that really bad that I make sexual innuendos sometimes?”

 

“You mean, all the time?” The brunette shakes her head.

 

“I don’t do it all the time.” She counters.

 

Alicia doesn’t even bother arguing with her girlfriend, because she knows that it will go on and on if they start. The hand she has on Elyza’s shoulder moves to her neck and pulls her down. She presses a delicate kiss on her lips. “If someone asks me why we’re together, I’d just say that you have a smoking hot body and it’s the only reason.”

 

Elyza’s lips goes from a smile to a pout. She frowns and looks at her in the eyes. “I know I’m hot, but I also have an amazing sense of humour.”

 

“I doubt that.”

 

“Hey! I’m pretty funny. Ask your brother, I bet he thinks I’m a fun person.” Elyza says.

 

“It’s the middle of the apocalypse and there’s literally no more television, internet, computer or telephones to distract us. Of course he’s going to think you’re fun, he has nothing else to distract him.”

 

“You’re such a meanie.”

 

“I’m only being realistic, honey.” She closes the gap between their lips one more time, but this time she only brushes them together. When Elyza leans forward to kiss them, Alicia pulls back with a teasing smile, making her lose balance and press their chest together. Elyza lets out a huff, but her hands instinctively move to the brunette’s waist. “I still love you, you know.” She teases, winking at her.

 

Elyza bites her lower lip. “I think that you don’t want to admit that you think I’m funny, but it’s fine…” She lowers her head to press open-mouthed kisses on Alicia’s neck – if she couldn’t kiss her lips, she will find somewhere else to kiss her. “And you’re a sap.”

 

“Am not.”

 

The blonde giggles and sucks at Alicia’s pulse point, very much intending to leave a mark on her skin. “I love you too.” She licks gently, hands moving up her waist, resting on the brunette’s ribs. Alicia cups Elyza’s face and presses a tender kiss on her lips, soon becoming more heated.

 

They’re interrupted by a knock at the door and it takes only a second before their bodies are separated. Both are panting, heart racing from the sudden interruption, fearing that it’s Alicia’s mother making sure that things doesn’t move too quick between them – which would be too late, but whatever.

 

“Can I come in?” Come Ofelia’s voice through the door.

 

Elyza clears her throat and answers: “Sure, you can open the door.”

 

It takes one more second before Ofelia decides to open it, her head peaking to make sure that the younger girls weren’t in a compromising situation. Ofelia knows that they were probably making out, the blush on Alicia’s cheeks giving it away. She doesn’t really care, because it’s something she’d expect from two young adult in love.

 

“It’s getting late.” She tells them, approaching from the bed. “I just wanted to make sure Alicia didn’t turn into a zombie in the middle of the night and ate you.”

 

A smiles cracks at Elyza’s lips. “I’m fine, but thanks for checking up on me. This one has been grumpy since she woke up and she doesn’t even let me out of bed.”

 

“I’m not grumpy.” Alicia complains.

 

“See?” Elyza points her girlfriend. “Grumpy.” Alicia smacks the blonde lightly on she shoulder and earns a giggles.

 

“Fuck you.”

 

Elyza winks at Alicia. “You wish.”

 

“Hey guys, I’m still here.” Ofelia reminds them, sitting on a computer chair. She rolls until she can moves her legs and put them on the bed. “After you left yesterday, we talked a little and we agreed to stay here for a few days. We thought that it would be okay with you, especially since Alicia’s not in the best shape.”

 

“I wouldn’t complain if we’d stay here.” Elyza says.

 

Alicia nods in agreement. “The house’s a bit small, but I think we can manage.”

 

“How’s are you feeling?” Ofelia points at the bandage, soaked with dried blood.

 

People of their group took the habit of asking her how things were with her injury. It’s a good thing for her, because it shows her that they really care about her well-being. The younger brunette smiles at her friend and shrugs. “It still hurts, but the pain is bearable with pain medication… which I should probably take, because it’s swelling a lot.”

 

“I should change your bandage too.”

 

“Alright, let me just use the bathroom?” Alicia asks, moving to the edge of the bed.

 

Elyza is quicker and jumps out of bed. “Nah, me first!” She stands up and runs at the door, where she almost collides with Nick. The poor guy looks like a deer in the headlights when he sees the blonde rushing out of the room and rushing towards the bathroom. Ofelia looks at Alicia with a confused look.

 

“ _What the fuck_.” Nick says, looking inside of the room to see Ofelia in the computer chair and his sister sitting crossed-legged in her bed. “What the hell did you do to poor Elyza?” Ofelia snorts and covers her mouth, giggling.

 

Alicia opens her mouth and, after stuttering a few incomprehensible words, she just shrugs. “Don’t ask questions, it’s _Elyza_ we’re talking about.”

 

“ _What does that even mean?!?_ ” She hears the blonde say from the bathroom.

 


	42. Chapter 42

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I apologize for being MIA for ten days. I had writer's blank and I started to spend more time with friends, etc. It's summer (finally there's no more snow in Quebec!!) 
> 
> I can't predict when the next chapter will be up, since it took me like forever to write this one... but it'll probably be before the end of the week. I gotta keep the suspense of who will die next, because yes, a main character will die before the end of this fic. Not Elyza or Alicia, but I'm warning you guys, things will get messy from now on.

After the group decided to stay in this house for a little while, there was some tensions between a few of them – obviously. Elyza and Nick were still feeling guilty about what happened with Donovan and disagreeing on how Daniel and Travis were siding up and saying that his death shouldn’t be one of their concerns. Alicia understands both point of views, because she knows that giving a shot with Donovan was risky and no one really trusted him. He was from Hillrise and they didn’t know a single thing about him. However, he was still a man, another survivor, and in times like these they could have needed his help. He could have saved someone’s life if he had proven himself capable of killing a walker in the gas station’s shop. It was wasted potential, at some point. Elyza and Alicia don’t talk at all about Donovan’s fate, afraid to bring it up and have different opinions. It doesn’t make things cold between them, thankfully.

 

They spend a total of five days in the house. Its situation is great; the other houses are far, they haven’t seen a lot of walkers roaming around in the past days and there was enough food supplies for them to last a while. Alicia is glad that they found the house and hopes that, maybe, they could stay together.

 

Alicia’s arm still hurts and swells, but it’s recovering well according to Elyza. She can move her fingers and wrist without too much pain, but she tries to avoid movement with her right arm to lessen the pain. They ran out of bandages, therefore she’s not wearing any. It’s good for the healing skin, it helps it breathe. In the meantime, she wears t-shirt to avoid fabric rubbing against her injury.

 

To kill time, the youngest members of the group decided to play card games or board games when they are bored. Elyza discovered that the Clark siblings are very competitive towards each other and they played Monopoly a lot when they were younger. When Ofelia discovered the Monopoly box, Alicia almost squealed of excitement because it was her favourite game. The competition between Nick and his sister is funny to watch. Ofelia is better at playing chess and Elyza beats everyone’s ass at Scrabble. Travis, Madison and Daniel prefer to occupy themselves with reading books, magazines or doing God knows what.

 

On the fifth morning, Alicia wakes up with a rather big headache. She didn’t slept well that night, because Elyza was the one volunteering to be on watch instead of Travis, who was already exhausted from staying up the previous night. She decided to give him a break, but Alicia had been alone in bed, with no one to keep her warm. She rubs her eyes, yawns and gets on her feet. The cold wooden floor makes her grimace. After using the bathroom, she moves to the living room and sees her girlfriend looking through the windows with Nick and Travis. They were obviously trying to hide themselves.

 

“Is that a walker?” She asks, making her brother jump. He mutters something under his breath and Alicia smiles, waiting for an answer.

 

Elyza shakes her head negatively. “No, it’s someone, a woman… she’s searching our cars.” She creases her eyebrows. “She seems to be alone too.”

 

“She’s been there for maybe five minutes.” Travis adds.

 

“Is she someone who you can recognize from Hillrise, maybe?” Alicia walks towards the windows and puts a hand on her girlfriend’s shoulder, looking outside to see a woman in her mid-twenties with dirty blonde hair. From where they were, Alicia couldn’t see more about the woman.

 

Travis looks at Alicia with his lips brought in a fine line, a serious look on his face. “No, I don’t recognize her.”

 

“Perhaps we should get outside and ask her what she wants before she highjacks one of our cars.” Nick proposes.

 

“Quite a bad idea, she seems armed from head to toes.” Elyza points out. “We can always find another one if we need to. If she knows we’re here, she might try to steal our supplies and we can’t really risk that. We’ve dealt with enough stuff before and after leaving Hillrise, I don’t want to add her on our list.”

 

Alicia gulps when she sees the woman turning her head towards the house, clearly not finding what she was searching for in their cars. Alicia knows that everything had been abandoned she probably thinks she’s alone and not being watched by people. When the woman gets out of the car, looking behind her to find a walker getting closer to her, everyone in the house hold their breath for a moment.

 

The woman deals with the walker easily, swinging a tomahawk axe in its head. They could practically hear the awful noise when the weapon hit the skull.

 

“She’s coming towards the house.” Nick says, gritting his teeth because of his nervousness. “What do we do?”

 

“Should we hide?” Alicia asks, turning her head towards her step-father.

 

Travis lets out a sigh. “She’s probably looking for the car keys.” She waits one more second before continuing. “As soon as she enters the house, she’ll fine one of us; Ofelia, Madison and Daniel haven’t seen her yet. I say we get ready in case she wants to steal our things, but we don’t attack. If anything happens, we’ll be ready, so take out your guns but don’t aim at her.”

 

“If she feels threatened, she might try to fight back.” Nick points out. “Guns aren’t a warm welcome, maybe we should just wait and see.”

 

“I don’t like this.” Elyza mutters.

 

Before anyone could say anything else, the front door opens and everyone becomes quiet. They hear movement down the hallway and footsteps. The woman seems to be looking for something – perhaps the car keys – and they keep holding their breaths.

 

No more noises for a few seconds; the woman is probably hearing to see if there’s any walkers in the house. Elyza clenches her jaw, taking out her hunting knife, preferring to be prepared for a confrontation. The suspense is killing her. They haven’t moved from the living room since they saw her searching in their cars. Alicia glances at her girlfriend, but the blonde is concentrated in hearing the footsteps coming down the hallway. Soon they’ll be found out and it was stressing them a lot.

 

The wooden floor creaks and this is what informs them that the woman is still moving, but more cautiously this time. If they would have been walkers, they would have been intrigued by this sound and wanted to check the intruder.

 

Then they see the woman. She’s definitely in her mid-twenties and her dirty blonde hair are curling at the end. She has a black tank top and camo trousers; either she’s from the military or the pants are just for the looks. When her hazelnut eyes crosses Alicia’s gaze, she freezes instantly.

 

“What the…” The woman trails off, eyes widening in surprise.

 

Travis puts a hand over his gun, still in its holster. “Please, don’t make us do anything we’ll regret.” He says warningly, giving her a cold stare.

 

His warning doesn’t go unheard and she lowers her tomahawk, looking at four pair of eyes. She takes a few seconds to calmly examine Travis, Nick, Elyza and Alicia. “Sorry, it’s been a while since I’ve seen other survivors… I didn’t expect to find anybody in this house.”

 

“No need to apologize.” Nick gives her a reassuring smile, though the woman can probably feel his reluctance to talk. “You didn’t know we were here.”

 

“Uh… okay. Hi, I’m Eva.” She says.

 

A door opens and Daniel appears, his eyes locked at the back of Eva’s head. He takes out his guns, removes the safety and points it in her back. It’s not a warm welcome at all, but Alicia understands that he’s only trying to keep them safe. Eva hears the click and understands that someone’s behind her and pointing a gun at her. “I’m not here for trouble, I swear.” Eva says, trying to reassure them.

 

“Lower the gun, Daniel… there’s no need for this.” Travis tells him.

 

“Do I have to remember what happened last time someone broke into our house?” Daniel lets a sigh. Of course they will always remember what happened; when Greg and James broke into their house, trying to steal their supplies. They fought with him and Elyza took a nasty hit at her head. Daniel tortured them and James eventually found a way to free himself. Then there was another confrontation and they had to escape the house because Daniel was injured. The story didn’t end there, since they had problems with Alejandra after Richard decided to introduce them to the community.

 

Nick shoots a glare at the Salvadoran man. “Don’t do this, please.” After Donovan’s abrupt death, Nick didn’t want anybody to die – whether it was his family, his friends or even stranger. Of course they could defend themselves if they needed to, but Eva didn’t seem to be a woman that would put them in trouble or in a bad position.

 

Soon, Madison and Ofelia join them and observe silently Eva in the middle of the living room. She is still holding her tomahawk, but she actually look terrified to be alone against seven persons – who are armed to the teeth too. “I don’t want any trouble.” She says, trying to be reassuring. “I’m alone, I was just trying to find the keys for the cars outside, but I believe they are yours…”

 

“They are.” Madison speaks for the first time. “Were you following us?”

 

“She can’t be following us, we’ve been here for nearly a week.” Nick says to his mother. “Where are you from?”

 

Eva lowers her eyes to the ground. “I’m from San Clemente and I’m heading to the Cleveland National Forest. I have family there.” She lets out a shaky breath. “Sir, if you would please stop aiming at my back, I would appreciate.” She says to Daniel.

 

He lowers his pistol with a frown. “I don’t trust you.”

 

“You trust no one, papa.” Ofelia retorts, pointing out the evidence. Her father only rolls his eyes in response. “I am Ofelia and this is my father, Daniel. Forgive him for his bad behaviour, he doesn’t like strangers.”

 

It is now the time for proper introduction. “I’m Nick.” Nick says. “This is Alicia, Madison, Travis and Elyza.” He says, his head turning to point the other members of their group with his chin. “Sorry for the welcome, we didn’t socialize a lot lately.”

 

“It’s fine, I get it.” Eva offers him a gentle and shy smile. “So uh… I think I’m gonna go now, I don’t want to bother you, guys.”

 

The words leave Alicia’s mouth before she even thinks twice about it. “Maybe you could stay for today?” Daniel glares at her but she remains unaffected by him. “I bet you’re hungry and you could use some sleep…”

 

Eva looks uncertain and, after a few minutes, Alicia is sure that she’ll refuse the offer. Then, she makes a small nod. “I have my own food supplies in my backpack. If everyone agrees, I could take a nap and rest a little. It’s been like four days that I haven’t slept well.” She seemed to be tired too.

 

The adults of their group glances at each other. Travis and Madison nod, looking at an annoyed Daniel. Ofelia nudges him in the ribs and le lets out a grunt, finally nodding. Since Alicia already asked Eva to stay with them for the rest of the day, she didn’t really need to tell her opinion. Ofelia, Elyza and Nick approves with nods and smiles.

 

“I don’t know how I can repay you, but thank you a lot.” Eva says with a small voice.

 

* * *

 

Even if most of them – everyone, except Daniel – tried to persuade Eva to sleep in one of their beds, she refused and decided to lay on the living room couch, claiming that she is used by now to sleep in weird places. She told Alicia and Elyza, a smirk on her lips, that the couch is probably already the first comfortable thing she slept on for weeks. To everyone’s surprise, when she laid on the said couch, she tucked her fists under her chin and fell asleep almost instantly. For a woman who had been living alone for long enough in this world, sleep got to her rather quickly. She truly was exhausted – she explained that she only allows herself to sleep a few hours here and there, mostly the night, staying quiet while awake to make herself as small as possible. She wanted to keep the in-humans away.

 

Alicia and Elyza are talking quietly in the kitchen when Eva enters, biting in an apple that looks delicious, and a radiant smile at her lips. She looks less tired and they notice she had changed clothes, now wearing a long sleeved black t-shirt and dark blue jeans. Her dirty blonde hair are loose and Alicia wonders if Eva is younger than what she looks like – she figured that she had Ofelia’s age, but it’s a hard thing to define.

 

“Hey Eva.” Elyza greets her, smiling. “Slept well?”

 

“I did, thanks again for letting me stay.” Eva nods, moving to sit on the counter, at the opposing side of the kitchen from where the couple is. “I needed my beauty sleep.”

 

Elyza snorts. “For the walkers?”

 

“Hey, think about it; when you die, it’s your ghost outfit forever and you don’t want to look bad, don’t you?” Eva jokes, letting out a giggle. Alicia figures that her girlfriend will get along well with Eva, since they seem like they have the same sense of humour.

 

They all let out quiet chuckles. “Elyza here believes in reincarnation.” Alicia tells Eva, pointing at the blonde, who quirks her eyebrows.

 

“In some ways…” Elyza trails. “… I think it’s important to leave something for dead or dying people for their passage to another world. Not that I believe in another word, just… it makes me feel more like a human being.”

 

Eva nods. “I can understand that. I grew up with religious parents and went to church every Sunday for the masses, went to a catholic school and everything.” She takes a deep breath and continues. “I don’t believe in anything now that this world is falling apart. God wouldn’t have let things deteriorate like this.”

 

“Were you in the army?” Alicia blurts out.

 

“No, but there was a military base near my hometown. When people started dying, they made a refuge in the base and tried to protect us. They failed because they couldn’t contain the in-humans.”

 

“You’re heading to the Cleveland National Forest, but where did you say you are you from?” Elyza asks.

 

Eva smiles at them. “San Clemente, actually, but I was in LA when the riots started and moved to my brother’s house in West Covina. He was living in the suburbs. People were worried there, but it was still quiet.”

 

Alicia remembers the riots in downtown Los Angeles. Travis had been worried about Chris and left her, Madison and Nick in their house, waiting for him to return. They had been planning on leaving and heading for the desert, but it didn’t happen; the army forces decided to put their quarter in quarantine, cleared from the infected. She smiles to herself, remembering Chris again; she hates that she didn’t get to say goodbye to him. He got sick, he died and then he turned. In only a few hours, she lost a brother – because yes, she considered him family, as much as now she sees Travis like the closest parental figure to a father since her own father’s death in a car accident. She tries not to think too much about him, because she still feels the pain of the loss like Chris died the day before and she doesn’t really want to cry in front of a stranger.

 

“What happened to you brother?” Elyza wonders, her hand moving to Alicia’s back to comfort her a little.

 

“We got separated. That’s why I’m going to the Cleveland National Forest. Tyler wanted to go there.” She lets out a sigh. “I am aware that the probabilities of him making it to our cousins are very low, but I’ll die trying to get there. And you guys, where are you going?”

 

Alicia brings her lips into a fine line. “We don’t know yet.”

 

“We’ve been here and there, but nothing really works for us.” Elyza adds. “We’re still trying to figure it out.”

 

“Are you from LA?”

 

Alicia nods, but Elyza shakes her head. “Born and raised in Australia. I only moved to LA in summer before school started.”

 

“With your parents?”

 

“No, but that’s a long story for another time.”

 

They keep quiet for a moment. Ofelia and Nick are probably in their rooms – they seem to be in a relationship, but they don’t show it to much to get on Daniel’s nerves. When he understood that something was going on between his daughter and Nick, he almost punched him in the face… and probably would have if Travis hadn’t been there to threaten Daniel not to touch Nick. The older members of their group are in their room too, preferring to spend time alone since they had been walking over each other’s feet for the past seven days.

 

“If you’re looking for a place to stay, you could come with me.” Eva says, breaking the silence. “There’s more than enough place to stay in their home. We could all help each other.”

 

Alicia glances at Elyza, still stroking her back with her hand. Her girlfriend shrugs. “I don’t think that Daniel will agree to that.” _Especially not after what happened to Hillrise and with Alejandra._ Daniel will probably stop trusting all the survivors they will come across. And staying in someone else’s place? They tried that already and it didn’t really worked out well, except maybe from Strand’s ship.

 

“I mean, it’s an offer on the table. I hope that you will talk about it to the rest of your group, because I would like some company on my travels.” Eva continues. “It’s easier like this and less scary.”

 

“We’ll tell them about your proposition and come back to you later… but don’t get your hopes up, Daniel doesn’t trust anyone. It took a while before he accepted Elyza in our group.” Alicia says with a serious face.

 

Eva smiles at them. “It’s okay, I just wish we can help each other. If they don’t want to come with me, I’ll try to get there by myself and hope my cousins are still alive.”

 

“Give us an hour or two, okay?” Elyza asks.

 

“Sure. If they decide that they don’t want to come with me, it’s fine, but I’ll have to leave you.”

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please, let me hear your opinion on this chapter or on the fic in general, I want to improve myself. If there's anything you would like me to change, just tell. The ten previous chapters aren't beta-ed yet (or are already, but I haven't checked my e-mails yet... ugh I'm lazy lately, forgive me.)
> 
> A big thumbs up to Ash_From_Aus, my incredible beta reader, amazing person, extraordinaire helper. Without her, I don't know if the things I write would make any sense :)


	43. Chapter 43

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Small chapter, but we get to see a little bit more of Eva. They also take a decision.

Ofelia is angry at her father. “Are you seriously going to decline this offer?” She spits, crossing her arms on her chest.

 

Elyza and Alicia had just explained a few minutes ago Eva’s proposal to join her to the Cleveland National Forest, hoping to find her relatives. Of course, Daniel immediately refused it, claiming that they should trust a stranger, not after she tried to steal their vehicles, especially not after what happened at Hillrise a week before. He claimed that they shouldn’t trust anybody, but it was always the same excuse he gave them.

 

Daniel shakes his head positively, sending his daughter a serious glare. They start to argue their point of view in Spanish, talking too quickly for anyone to really understand what they are saying, even for Alicia who had basic knowledges of the language. When they transition to speak in English, everyone is startled by the change and they try to keep up with the argumentation. “We are not going to follow her Ofelia, this is dangerous and we don’t even know if her cousins are still alive.” Daniel continues, starting to walk around in circles.

 

Eva is probably already hearing them; it’s not like there are other sounds in the house other than their voices. The walls are paper thin and she certainly hears Daniel’s point of view.

 

Alicia’s stomach churns as she looks over to her mother. Madison seems to envisage Eva’s offer and what that could bring for their group to follow her. Alicia is nervous, because she desperately wants to get out of the house. They’ve been in there for a complete week and, as much as she liked being with Elyza, she wasn’t alone with her and wanted to have more intimacy. Her arm wasn’t completely healed yet, but moving her fingers wasn’t making her in pain. The scar was still a dark shade of pink, but healing great according to her girlfriend.

 

“Papa, we _need_ this. We have literally nowhere to go, we haven’t decided on anything because we don’t have plants at all since Hillrise.” Ofelia deadpans.

 

Travis decides to intervene. “Your daughter is right Daniel, we should do this for us. Eva can’t promise us a safe place, but we can’t stay here forever, waiting for a bad luck to happen.” He takes a deep breath as Daniel’s gaze plunges in his eyes. “I think everyone here, except you, wants to follow her. Am I right?”

 

There is a series of nods from all of them, except the Salvadoran man. “We could die if we follow her.” Daniel groans of frustration.

 

Elyza rolls her eyes at him. “Yes we could, but something could happen here and then we’ll regret not following her. We know that death is inevitable, it will happen to all of us someday, probably sooner than later with all the walkers around. You lost your wife and we lost Chris too. I think we deserve trying to find a place safer than this house.” She points down to the wooden floor to make her point. “We can die trying to fight or we can hide like cowards until death comes for us.”

 

“And I don’t think that hiding like a coward is your style.” Alicia adds, a smirk at her lips.

 

They know they are pressuring Daniel into agreeing to the proposition on the table and they shouldn’t do that. They always made decisions as a group. If anyone wanted to make his opinion heard, they would listen and re-think about their situation. But right now, Daniel was just refusing to hear them out, because he thought that they shouldn’t listen to Eva. Alicia gets that he is afraid that something similar to Hillrise happen, but this isn’t the same situation at all. They need to make him agree, since the majority wants to leave to the Cleveland National Forest.

 

“You are foolish to think she’ll let you stay at her cousins’ place without asking for something in return.” Daniel says with a low voice. “Ofelia and I will not follow her.”

 

Ofelia shakes her head. “You don’t get to decide what’s best for me.”

 

“I do.”

 

“No, you don’t. We’re family, we are supposed to stick together through everything and now you’re just letting us down.” She points out. “You’re the only one who doesn’t want to go with her.”

 

“We probably wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t from you.” Nick says. “I don’t want either of you leaving.”

 

Daniel looks at Nick. “She only wants to follow because of _you_.”

 

“Because of _all of them_.” Ofelia retorts. “Stop your nonsense and come with us. I’ll drag you if I have to.”

 

Nick lets out a sigh of relief and everyone keeps quiet for the next minutes, Daniel silently debating if he could change their mind about going with Eva to her cousins’ place. Then he finally breaks the uncomfortable silence. “I will come with you, but if anyone dies, it’s on Eva.”

 

Eva almost appears magically at the sound of her name. Alicia is right; she had been listening to their conversation, though it wasn’t really hard to eavesdrop when all she could hear was them talking to make a decision. “I will not take the blame for anything. I am capable of defending myself and I believe you are too. I’ll help, but I don’t have eyes behind my back. If something happens by my fault, I’ll recognize my mistakes, but if not…” She shrugs. “It’s not my problem. We all lost someone and we know it’s something we can’t control, because in-humans are pain in the ass sometimes.”

 

Elyza nods, liking that Eva was standing her ground with Daniel. “We’re coming with you.” She tells to Eva.

 

“Good thing.” The dirty blonde woman smiles at her. “I think we should take another good night of sleep and take off in the morning, if you guys agree.” She waits a few seconds before adding: “I prefer to travel early during the day.”

 

* * *

 

They agreed to leave the next morning and they’ll take the Sedan and the SUV. Alicia feels excited, because they’re finally leaving this house. Except from Elyza, she ran out of distractions a while ago… and it’s hard to be intimate with her girlfriend when she can hear everyone walking and talking. It means that everyone will know it if things get heated between Alicia and Elyza and they really want to be more subtle than that.

 

They’re in bed, door closed, and Elyza is peppering kisses against her collarbone. It’s so delicate and Alicia grabs the back of her girlfriend’s neck to keep her in place, wanting, _needing_ , more of her lips on her skin. Elyza had thrown a leg over hers and pinned her against the mattress. Her hands are moving from Alicia’s hips to the back of her thighs, slowly breaking the brunette’s will to keep things down between them until they find a new house to live in.

 

Alicia lets out a series of swears under her breath when Elyza starts sucking the skin on her neck and firmly grabbing her thighs, pressing their bodies together. She feels the blonde smirk against her skin. “You’re not playing fair.” Alicia tells her, feeling herself getting more and more frustrated. “And we should be sleeping.” She adds.

 

Elyza doesn’t want to sleep, because she wants Alicia so badly. She started thinking about their next trip with Eva and she thought that bad things could happen. She almost lost Alicia when they fought Alejandra. Her bite wasn’t infected yet, luckily, but still. Anything could happen and Elyza didn’t want to lose her girlfriend and she wanted to make sure Alicia knows that she loves her deeply.

 

“I love you.” Elyza breathes out. There’s a small desperation in her voice and Alicia seems to notice it. “Promise me nothing will happen to you?”

 

“You know I can’t make promises like that.” Alicia murmurs.

 

“At least tell me you’re going to try.”

 

The brunette smiles genuinely. “I will try and be careful.”

 

“Good then.” She rocks their hips together and lets out a soft sigh. “I want you so bad.” Alicia bites her lower lip and tries not to smile. Keyword: tries.  When Elyza sees that she can’t help smiling, she leans to press a long kiss against her lips.

 

Alicia pulls apart when she finds herself craving for more touches and kisses. “Elyza, we shouldn’t start. I don’t want anyone to hear us.”

 

The blonde clears her throat. “Right, right – sorry.” She lets out a chuckle, but Alicia can see that her girlfriend is a little disappointed. “I guess I’m just horny since we haven’t made love since Hillrise. And I’m probably ovulating, because my hormones are killing me right now.”

 

“I get it, but I’d rather not do anything when everyone can hear us.”

 

“Yeah, okay.” Elyza removes the leg she had thrown over Alicia’s.

 

They move in sync to cuddle each other, the brunette being the small spoon and the blonde the bigger spoon. Elyza rests her hands on her girlfriend’s stomach, her chin resting on her shoulder, a content smile at her lips.

 

“Sleep well, sweet cheeks.” Alicia smiles at the blonde’s words.

 

“You too. And I love you.”

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 140k words woooooot!


	44. Chapter 44

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys, I know I was MIA for the summer, but I am here again. I don't know when the next update will be, but I promise it won't take months. This chapter is a little bit longer. There's a lot of stuff going on and it ends on a cliffhanger... but yeah. I felt the need to stop writing right there. 
> 
> Hope you'll enjoy reading and sorry for the long wait.

They are all awake before the first lights of the sun making their appearance. They quickly pack their few belongings in their backpacks, preparing themselves and getting ready to finally leave this house after a week. Elyza is happy to get back on the road, but she still has this tingling feeling that they shouldn’t leave a safe place behind. She knows that her group would need to move forward a moment or another. Everyone had been pressuring Daniel into agreeing to leave with Eva for the Cleveland National Forest and look for her relatives. Elyza shouldn’t start thinking about the pros and the cons of leaving with a stranger. Daniel still seems a bit frustrated, but he kept quiet while eating his breakfast. The rest of the group chatted together, wanting to know more about their newest member.

 

Since they are leaving and she doesn’t know when she’ll be able to have a look at Alicia’s bite wound, Elyza decides to do it while the others finish getting ready. It healed very well so far, but she still wants to check up just in case. She pulls up Alicia’s sleeve and glances down at the teeth marks on the brunette’s skin. It doesn’t look as nasty as it did, but she still hates to see her girlfriend’s healing flesh. Sitting on a couch, Elyza and Alicia don’t really pay attention to what the others are saying to Eva. They hear Travis saying that they’ll leave after everyone used the bathroom one last time. They were ready already, having done their business a few minutes ago. Elyza’s fingers slowly and gently brushes the pink skin around Alicia’s bite mark.

 

“Is it still painful?” Elyza asks lowly, not wanting to draw Eva’s attention on her girlfriend’s injury.

 

Alicia shakes her head negatively. “Not anymore, it mostly itches.” She answers, moving her hand to slide it between Elyza’s. “The only time it hurts is when I close my hand really tight, otherwise I think I’m good.”

 

“Will you be fine if you need to use a knife?”

 

“I have to be, if we need to take care of a bunch of walkers. I can’t just stay on the bench when we could use an extra pair of hands, out there.” Alicia says, running her thumb on the back of her girlfriend’s hand.

 

Elyza pinches her lips together, looking up to lock her eyes with green ones. “If you get hurt…”

 

Alicia cuts her before she can say anything else. “I won’t, babe. I promise that I’ll be very careful.” She knows that if things gets bad, she will need to use her hand. That could save a life. She is not going to put anyone in danger, because she is going to be very discreet.

 

“You better do that, because if you get hurt… I’m not going to forgive you easily.”

 

They are so caught up in their conversation that they almost jump in surprise when a third voice interrupts them. “Is that a bite wound?” Eva asks them, her eyes glued to Alicia’s arm. She frowns at them. Alicia bites her lower lip, knowing that this might be confusing for the people not knowing the story behind the injury. The brunette sees a flash of hope in Eva’s eyes, thinking that maybe she had been bitten by a walker and was immune to the virus.

 

“It’s not what it looks like, Eva.” Elyza says.

 

Alicia cares to elaborate their explanation a little. “What she wanted to say is that… it’s not a walker’s bite.”

 

“Whose is it, then? A human’s?” Eva is clearly intrigued and she wants to know more about the story behind the injury.

 

Alicia decides to ignore her mother’s disapproving look and answers honestly. “Yes, it’s a human’s bite.” She knows that Madison, behind her harsh glares, only wants to protect her and their group. She is definitely not pleased that her daughter gives this kind of information to a perfect stranger – because, of course, Alicia knows that her mother only sees Eva as a stranger. “Long story short; we came across bad people and things got bad. I was very lucky that it’s my only injury.”

 

Eva hums in understanding. “I get that it’s hard to trust people these days. People would do anything for a safe place, weapons and food.” Elyza nods, approving the words. She clenches her jaw, remembering that someone could have gotten killed by Alejandra. “We humans should stick together, don’t you think? At least not try to kill each other. We have the dead ones trying to do that already and it’s hard enough to survive them.” Alicia likes Eva’s point of view of their situation. She isn’t surprised that the woman, just like Elyza, managed to survive on her own for a while.

 

Travis, who was listening to the conversation silently, decides to interrupt them. “I think that it would be a better idea to hit the road now. We need to cover as much distance as we can. The sooner we get there is the better.”

“I agree with you on that, Travis.” Elyza says.

 

* * *

 

The first lights of the sun is only starting to show in the morning sky when Madison jumps behind the wheel of their SUV, Daniel, Nick and Ofelia sitting in the passenger’s seats. Travis chose to ride in the Sedan with Alicia, Elyza and their newest member. He had to shoot a look at his step-daughter, silently pointing the front seat. She understood that he wanted Eva to sit in the backseat with Elyza to have someone watching her. Alicia knows that he doesn’t trust her yet. Elyza nodded, having watched the silent conversation, and she sat in the backseat with Eva.

 

At first, there was a quite awkward moment, not a silence thanks to the radio, but still unpleasant for everyone. The blonde in the backseat mostly looks the back of Alicia’s head, trying sometimes to catch her eyes in the mirror. Elyza only catches a few glances of her girlfriend, who largely prefers to look at the deserted road in front of her, searching for walkers or anything she would deem unusual for their situation – like a fire, other people or writings on walls or streets. Anything.

 

After a moment, Eva starts to hum the air of the song, who Elyza recognizes as Rebel Yell from Billy Idol – her father used to listen to his songs when she was still a kid. She often joined him, singing and dancing along, even if she didn’t know the lyrics and the artist. It made her father happy and it was one of the best memories she had of him. A smile flashes across her lips at the thought.

 

Elyza feels fingers poking at her knee and looks down, seeing Alicia’s hand brushing her jeans, her arm weirdly positioned between the seat and the door. She is silently asking to hold hands and the blonde doesn’t have to think twice before taking it between hers.

 

Eva clears her throat, noticing the movement. Maybe she is uncomfortable with the slight display of affection, but Alicia and Elyza don’t really care about that anymore. If they are giving a ride to a homophobic person and a little affection bothers them, they can always get the fuck out of their car. Elyza represses a sigh and bites her lower lip. She can’t say anything stupid. Not when everything is only starting to get better, after Chris’s death and Hillrise.

 

“So, you two are like… together?” Eva asks lowly, eyes scanning the area. She probably feels like she’s stepping on eggshells, but it’s certain that she doesn’t want all the car ride to be awkward.

 

“Yup.” Alicia answers, her thumb brushing on the back of Elyza’s hand.

 

Eva hums and nods to herself. “That’s cool. It’s rare to see couples still together even after the outbreak.”

 

Elyza lets out a giggle. “We were not together before. Actually, we didn’t even know each other at all.”

 

“Lucky me, though. Wrong moment but right place.” Alicia continues, turning her head to look at Eva. “Elyza saved me when I was in a bad situation.”

 

“You call being alone in a parking lot, surrounded by walkers coming out from everywhere, a bad situation?” The blonde quirks her eyebrows.

 

Alicia shrugs. “I wasn’t alone, you were stalking me.”

 

“Not quite correct, I was following your group.”

 

Travis frowns. “You were following us?”

 

“I was only curious and lonely, come on.” Elyza rolls her eyes, a smirk growing on her lips. “I only agreed to stick with the group because you were living on a boat and it was the safest place I’ve been for a while.”

 

Eva lets out a chuckle of amusement. “You guys were all on a boat?”

 

Alicia nods. “Yeah, it was a pain in the ass to get food supplies. After a while, we decided to leave the boat behind to get on the ground again.” She bites the insides of her cheeks. “I can’t count the times when we were in a bad situation but made it out all alive.”

 

“Almost all of us.” Travis corrects his step-daughter. Alicia regrets her words instantly, because Chris isn’t there anymore. She knows it affects Travis the most, because he lost his son and misses him every day.

 

“How many persons did you lost?” Eva asks reluctantly, curious to know more about their group.

 

“Three.” He answers. “Daniel lost his wife, Griselda… and then there was my ex-wife and my son.”

 

“I’m sorry for your loss.” Eva continues. “It’s hard to keep fighting when all we see is people dying around us.”

 

Travis smiles to himself, but it wasn’t a happy smile. “It is, but we had no other choice so far. You have nothing to be sorry for, you must have lost a few loved ones too. We’re all on the same boat here.”

 

“Tyler, my brother, lost his husband and we were all really close.” If Eva’s brother was married to a man, that probably means that she was supportive towards the LGBT community. “We didn’t even get to bury or burn his body. The dead ones got to him and it would have been too hard and dangerous to get his body back.” Her voice breaks a little at the last words. “I don’t handle losing people very well.”

 

Elyza sighs, appreciating Alicia’s soft brushes on the back of her hand. “I think nobody can.” Her world had been completely destroyed when she had to put an end to Fiona and Henry’s life. Walkers had bit them when they were arguing about something meaningless. Elyza shivers at the thought of it; it had been a while since she had thought about her best friend and her boyfriend. That had been a decision hard to make and one that haunted her for the following weeks. Taking somebody’s life, even if they are bound to die because it’s their destiny, it haunts you, no matter how your conscience tries to tell you that it had been the only way to deal with the situation. It had made her feel less like a human being, more like a monster. Thankfully, now she has come to terms with the decision she made in her past and doesn’t regret anything, knowing that Fiona and Henry probably would have hated her if she ran away and let them die and turn into walkers.

 

Travis, Eva and Alicia hum in unison, understanding Elyza’s point. “Yeah.” Alicia clears her throat and forces a smile, trying not to think too much about Chris. “Maybe we should talk about something else…” She gulps. She doesn’t want to think about dead people at all, because it all reminds her too much the danger they face every days. That anyone can die.

 

Eva seems to agree to the change of conversation. “Yeah, okay.” She waits a few more seconds. “Travis, are you gonna take the highway to get to the park?”

 

“No, highways are always blocked by cars and it gets too dangerous because of the walkers.” He answers. “My best bet is driving until we get to Trabuco Creek Road. It’s not that far away, but we’ll find a house and sleep there for the night.”

 

“And after?” Elyza wonders.

 

“The map indicates that we can access the park if we follow this road.” He waits a few seconds, passing by a small group of walkers eating an animal in the middle of the road. They’re too busy enjoying their feast; they don’t even turn their heads to look at their vehicle. “If everything goes fine, we will be in the park tomorrow afternoon. Then we’ll need your indications, Eva.”

 

Getting outside of the city is somehow relieving for Alicia, though she can’t help but think that food will probably be their first priority. It’s easy when there are houses at every corner, but away from the remaining of their civilisation, not so much. Sure, there will still be cars loaded with supplies, things that everyone packed in a rush when the outbreak happened, but that probably won’t be enough. It’s been almost a year now.

 

Alicia can’t believe that they almost all made it out alive. They lost Griselda, then Chris’ mother. Strand decided to stay on his boat and they don’t know what happened to him, but everyone is certain that he didn’t escape death. Then again, Strand was a mysterious man. Maybe he escaped it and left the Abigail. It wouldn’t be surprising, this man looked prepared for the apocalypse even before it happened. Such a strange man. And then they lost Chris. It was so sudden, it took them all by surprise. Alicia’s heart clenches at the memory of her step brother, at the thought that they hated each other before the outbreak. Then they had to take care of each other and his mother died… Alicia couldn’t be harsh with him when he needed a shoulder to rely on. They became family. She looks up at Travis like she looked up at her father when she was scared. Not quite the same way, though. Travis is a parental figure, someone she knows will protect her, Nick and Madison. Someone who won’t hesitate a second to give his life for theirs.

 

Eva’s words takes Alicia out of her reverie. “I know Cleveland National Forest just like my pocket. I’ll find my way to my cousins’ place.”

 

“Is it far from where we enter the park?” Alicia asks.

 

“It will take us more time to get there from where we will be, but if we drive faster we could get there in a day.” She explains. “Because there’s not a lot of houses and I don’t think anyone wants to sleep in the car in the middle of the night.” They would be easy target for walkers or even people.

 

“I’m sure we could drive a little faster tomorrow.” Travis says. “But we’re getting low on gas, so we’ll stop in a few to fill the tanks.”

 

* * *

 

Elyza is happy to finally set her feet on the ground, even if it’s only for a few moments. She needs to stretch her back and legs, knowing they’ll be sore next morning if she doesn’t do it. That’s a thing she hates now; long car rides. She used to like it before, back when she was in Australia… but now, she can’t enjoy it. Moving from one place to another isn’t an obligation, but if it brings safety to her group, to Alicia, she can make compromises. Plus, she’s feeling pressure in her bladder and would really like to relieve herself before getting trapped in a vehicle.

 

Travis stopped the car near a small village. There are only a few vehicles around and he hopes to find enough gas to fill the tanks of both cars and even in their petrol can. “Nick and I will take care of the gas.” He informs the rest of the group.

 

“I’ll have a look at those cars, see if there’s anything interesting.” Daniel grumbles. He probably hopes to find a gun or something – even though they have weapons from their head to their feet.

 

“I’ll watch your back, then.” Madison says. She gives a look at Travis, silently telling him not to worry about them.

 

That leaves Ofelia, Alicia, Elyza and Eva to do what they please. “Maybe we should have a look in those houses over there,” Eva points in a direction, “if there’s anything to eat.”

 

Elyza nods. “And I could use a bathroom break.”

 

“Me too, I drank too much water before leaving.” Ofelia says.

 

Travis looks up to them. “Be careful, girls. I want you back here in one piece in twenty minutes, is that clear?”

 

The four girls nod in unison.

 

* * *

 

They had time to scavenge only one houses in twenty minutes, having to take care of walkers. Eva almost threw up all her breakfast with the nasty odor in the bathroom, after they opened the door. Even Elyza had to pinch her nose and stop breathing for a few second; there was a walker in the bathtub. Nothing alarming, since it was chained to a grab bar and couldn’t move much, even if it noticed them. The walker started groaning louder and tried to walk towards them. Eva rapidly took care of it and got out of the bathroom soon after, not wanting the smell to disturb more her stomach. They decided to get back to the rest of their group after that.

 

Travis and Nick found enough gas to last them for a little while. Probably not enough to get their cars through the Cleveland National Forest, but they’ll surely find other cars there. If not, they could always walk. It’s not as safe as travelling in a vehicle, but they’ll be in the middle of the forest and there will not be as much walkers as there are in the city. They don’t have enough belongings to bring with them either; everything they have can fit in their backpacks. They’re loaded, but the group certainly prefers to deal with a heavy backpack instead of a bunch of walkers.

 

Less than thirty minutes after stopping to find gas and fill their tanks and they’re already back on the road. Elyza is still sitting in the backseat with Eva and she would prefer being at Alicia’s sides. At least she could lean her head on her girlfriend’s shoulder and sleep for a moment, especially since they didn’t get much sleep the previous night.  

 

“How long will it take to get to Trabuco Creek Road?” Alicia asks Travis, leaving her head against the window.

 

His answer comes after a few seconds to think. “I think we’ll be there in less than an hour.” He pauses. “If there’s no obstacles in our way.”

 

“If you guys don’t mind, I’ll sleep for a bit.” Eva says. “Wake me up when we’re there or if you need me.” She leans her head against the window too, just like Alicia.

 

Elyza looks at Travis in the mirror and she lets out a sigh. He doesn’t say anything to her, but she knows that he would prefer her to be awake with him, to have an eye on Eva. There’s at least the music in the CD player to distract her. It’s looks like country or blues… nothing that she usually likes – or dislike either – but Travis seems to enjoy the slow rhythm of the music. 

 

They drive by a small horde of walkers and Elyza looks at them silently. She hates to think that they were normal people, just like her, before the outbreak. They were someone else’s father, mother or child. She is happy to have Alicia and the rest of the group with her, because they’re close to each other and she trusts them with her life, but thinking that she’s a part of her girlfriend’s family reminds her how she misses her parents and little brother. How they probably ended up just like the _other_ walkers and that they could be aimlessly walking in _their_ house. She wonders if someone, another survivor, had the mercy to kill them permanently. She shivers at the thought that they could’ve killed someone, that _Trevor_ could’ve killed someone… She shakes her head. She shouldn’t think about her family this way, as walkers. She should remember their smiles, their laugh and everything good about them.

 

She hears Travis clearing his throat. “Are you okay, Elyza?”

 

The blonde doesn’t really want to answer this question, but she knows Travis; he won’t stop looking after her if he judges that she’s not feeling okay. She offers him a smile. “Fine, I was thinking… just being nostalgic about my family, that’s all.”

 

“Do you want to talk about it?”

 

“I… no, not really. But if I do, I know I can always come to you.” She reassures him. She wonders what kind of teacher Travis was before the outbreak – certainly one adored by his students. He’s always there to listen to someone that needs to talk and looks after the people he loves. He takes care of her even if she’s only a person they met in the middle of a zombie apocalypse, even if he had his family to take care of too.

 

* * *

 

“We’re here.” Travis says as he looks at the name of the street, a smile at the corner of his lips.

 

It wasn’t a long drive, but it’s not like driving is very interesting. All they see is walkers here and there, but mostly abandoned cars, dead decomposing corpses in the middle of the road and dust balls moving because of the wind. There’s even a thin layer of dust on everything, but it’s mostly apparent on cars and houses.

 

Elyza lets out a long sigh of relief. “Finally.” She wiggles a little in the backseat. “I can’t wait to stretch my legs.”

 

Travis hums in understanding. “I’ll stop and talk to Maddie for a moment.” He pulls the car over and waits for Alicia’s mother to stop the car besides their Sedan. Daniel’s window is already pulled down so they can talk to each other.

 

“Something wrong?” Daniel asks him, glancing at Eva in the back of the car. Of course he would think that they have a problem with the woman.

 

“No, we’re here.”

 

“Already?” Madison smiles. “Good, we only have to find a house then… though I think we don’t have a lot of choice.” Indeed, there was only a dozen of houses they could see on the street. There was a road sign indicating the direction of the Cleveland National Forest too. “Should we take the farthest?”

 

“I say we should look inside a few houses before, see if there’s movement or anything suspicious.” Her fiancé replies. “We need to find enough bed or couch for everyone.”

 

“Okay.” Elyza lets out a sigh. “Let’s find this perfect house and take a nap.”

 

Alicia turns to glance at her girlfriend. “You could’ve slept.”

 

“I wasn’t really feeling like it.” She answers, winking. “But then, there would’ve been no one to keep company to Travis and tease him, right?” She could’ve used a little bit more sleep, but she needed to keep an eye on Eva. Alicia surely would understand her reason.

 

Travis stops the car on the side of the road and stops the engine. Meanwhile, Madison does the same. Alicia takes out her knife, preferring to be prepared to face walkers. Elyza opens the door, a smile tugging at her lips, happy to finally be outside of the vehicle; it’s boring because there’s nothing else to do except from sleeping or looking outside the window… but who has time to be bored during an ongoing zombie apocalypse, really?

 

Everyone is outside their cars, looking around them and then at each other. “It’s quiet.” Eva breathes out.

 

“It is.” Madison exhales. She points a house at their right with her knife. “I say we look at this one, it has a second floor. Probably has a lot of bedrooms.”

 

“And walkers.” Daniel points out.

 

Alicia shrugs. “All we need is to be careful and drag them outside.”

 

“We’re not going in right away?” Eva asks, looking at the brunette.

 

“Not unless you want to kill a walker inside and drag its body outside the house.” She answers.

 

Elyza nods in approval. “And then you would have to sleep with the nasty odor of its blood. Trust me, we’ve done it and it’s not very nice.”

 

“Enough talking guys.” Travis says. “We start with this house.”

 

* * *

 

“I say it’s big enough.” Elyza says at Travis. “We’re eight. We have three beds and two sofas… I don’t think we need to look at another house.”

 

“And there’s supplies too.” Nick adds, seeing that his stepfather doesn’t look convinced by the house. To him, it looks perfect for only one night. “We’d have food for a few days.”

 

Travis pinches his lips together. “You two are right, but having enough supplies for only a few days isn’t enough, especially since tomorrow we’ll be in a place where there probably won’t be a lot of houses. We should take a look in a few others and gather water and food to put in the SUV’s trunk.”

 

Madison puts a hand on her fiancé’s shoulder. “I think we did enough for today. It wasn’t much but we’re exhausted, Travis.” She tells him. “Can we do that tomorrow morning, before we leave, please?”

 

“What if we don’t have time tomorrow morning?” He replies, looking at the rest of the group. “What if we wake up and there’s a horde of walkers surrounding the house, like the other time?”

 

“It’s very unlikely… it’s not even a town, it’s just a road with a few houses. Nothing to worry about.” Nick retorts, crossing his arms on his chest.

 

Daniel looks at Travis. “I can always come with you.” Everyone knows the Salvadoran man is not one to stay inside a house and wait to leave; he has to do something. “This way you won’t be alone and we won’t have to scavenge the houses tomorrow morning.”

 

“Dad, you’re _injured_.” His daughter replies with a cold glare. “You shouldn’t even go outside.”

 

He scoffs in return. “It’s been almost two weeks Ofelia.”

 

“You’ve been _shot_ in your arm and you should rest.”

 

“If he wants to come with me, it means he knows the risks. He probably feels better, right Daniel?” Travis earns the nod of approval from his friend. “We won’t take long, we’ll do only two or three houses.” Travis looks at Madison, who simply scoffs. She clearly isn’t on the same page as him concerning Daniel’s last injury, as well as Ofelia.

 

“You shouldn’t go just the two of you, then.” Eva says for the first time in a while. “I could come with you and watch your back.”

 

Before Daniel has time to decline, Travis speaks. “Of course, if it’s what you want.”

 

“Really, dad?” Ofelia shakes her head and then Daniel says something in Spanish. No one really understands what he said, but it made his daughter roll her eyes in annoyance. “Whatever, just don’t kill yourself.”

 

Now Ofelia is mad at her father. She lets out a loud sigh and leaves the room in the next second, leaving the others still looking at each other in surprise. Travis, Daniel and Eva doesn’t say a word, but they start unloading their backpacks to make some room for more food and water supplies, getting ready to leave this house. Alicia and Elyza look at each other, speechless. The first one who moves is Nick, who decides it’s best for them if he goes after Ofelia and talk to her.

 

Madison gulps down nervously and looks at the trio. “Just, please be careful.” She says lowly, before moving to her room.

 

* * *

 

They’ve never really fought like this before. Sure, there had been misunderstandings and disagreeing along the way, mostly regarding their next move to find shelter and survive… but this, this is completely something else and Elyza feels that everyone is on the edge of going crazy. A life like this is rough, not knowing what’s next, not knowing if there’s danger at the corner of the street or behind a door. Having a new member in their close group is probably one of the reasons they’re nervous, exhausted and getting at each other’s throats.

 

After Travis, Eva and Daniel left to have a look at the other houses around, Nick and Ofelia retreated to their room, as well as Madison. Elyza had been dragged by her girlfriend in what probably used to be the guests room, on the second floor. She could see that Alicia was kind of upset by Travis and Daniel’s behaviours.

 

They let their bodies hit the mattress with ‘thumps’ and let out a sigh. They didn’t expect the day to end up like this. “I don’t know what got through their minds, but going alone in a house is fucking reckless.” Alicia mutters under her breath. “And Travis is always the first one to speak about staying safe and protecting each other.”

  
“He wants to feed and protect his family, its normal.” Elyza tries to reassure her and ease her girlfriend’s thoughts.

 

“That’s bullshit.”

 

The blonde slides her hand in Alicia’s and turns her head towards the stunning brunette. “Hey, we had a rough couple of weeks. I’m sure that he’ll become normal again after letting out his frustration on walkers.”

 

“If they get hurt, I’m going to explode their heads.” Alicia grumbles.

 

“No you won’t.” Elyza lets out a chuckle, amused because Alicia doesn’t look mean at all when she’s mad. “You’re gonna take care of them even if you’re pissed.”

 

Alicia lets out another sigh, knowing her girlfriend is right. “Yeah.” She lets out.

 

There’s a silence for a moment, not uncomfortable but Elyza itches to break it anyway. “Are you tired?”

 

The young brunette shakes her head negatively. “Not really, I zoned out in the car. But you can go ahead and take a nap if you want, I’m just gonna lay here with you, if you don’t mind.” She snuggles closer to her girlfriend to cuddle her. “I don’t feel like talking with them.” She points out, referring to her brother, her mother and Ofelia.

 

Elyza gives her a smile, understanding her point of view. “Of course I don’t mind, love.” Her eyes were already starting to close by themselves and Elyza knew she wouldn’t stay awake for much longer. “Do me a favor?”

 

“Sure?”

 

“Wake me up when the others come back.” She tells her girlfriend. If anything happened to Travis, Daniel and even Eva, she would regret not being up when they come back. At least, if Alicia wakes her up, she could provide as much help as she can. Even if they’re fine, Elyza would prefer to check on them to ask if they need her help for something.

 

Alicia presses her lips to the blonde’s forehead. “Yeah, don’t worry.” Alicia is sure that she’ll check on them too, even if she’s slightly mad at them for being reckless.

 

* * *

 

Elyza nearly falls off the bed when she hears the door slam open in a hurry. She imagines the worst when she sees a dishevelled Madison, ragged breath, yelling at them to come downstairs. Alicia is up in a matter of seconds – she apparently fell asleep too – and Elyza follows her, not forgetting to take their backpacks while leaving the room rapidly. She takes a second to thank God that they didn’t have sex before falling asleep and they weren’t naked for Madison to see. Elyza believes that her girlfriend’s mother would have had a heart attack and probably would have kicked her ass – because she knows Madison could very much to it without any remorse.

 

Alicia is thinking of the worst cases scenarios possible: Eva betrayed them, one of them got bitten by a walker, one of them is dead, Nick had gone after them or found medical drugs and took them all… She doesn’t have much time to think about the other possibilities, as she runs after her mother, followed by her girlfriend.

 

“We need to hurry!”

 

It’s not even dark yet, Elyza realises. Or maybe they slept all night and now it’s the middle of the day; she doesn’t feel like she slept a long time, though. “What is happening?” She asks Madison, shoving one of the backpacks in Alicia’s hands. “What time is it?”

 

Madison pushes the front door and she takes out her knife. They’re just the three of them, the others are nowhere to be seen. Elyza notices that the SUV is not parked in front of the house. “I think Nick and Ofelia ran away.” She explains them. “And I heard someone screaming from the neighborhood. I think its Travis.”

 

The first thing Alicia asks herself if why Nick and Ofelia could possibly ran away from them. She would understand Nick; he had always been like this, going off without any warning… but Ofelia, she has her father. Even if they’re not in such good terms because of the argument they had earlier, it’s not even a good reason. Ofelia would _never_ abandon Daniel just because they’re not seeing eye to eye on something. It has to be something else.

 

Elyza lets out a shaky breath and takes out her knife too, followed by her girlfriend. There’s not a lot of houses around, so she hopes that it won’t take them long to find Travis, David and Eva. “Ok, let’s do this.” She says lowly, taking the lead. “We have to be fast but stay careful and silent.”

 

“We look around this house first.” Madison tells them, pointing at the house on the left of the one they settled in. “I can’t say I know from where the screaming came from, but I’m pretty sure it comes from one of those houses.”

 

The first house has its front door locked – or jammed by something very large. Elyza doesn’t feel like kicking into it, just in case she hurts herself or finds the house crawling with walkers. “We gotta enter through another door, I think this one is locked.”

 

“Let’s take a look at the backdo–”

 

There’s a detonation, the sound of a gunshot, then broken glass falling on the ground. They barely have time to register what is happening, but now they’re sure that _someone is shooting at them_ from the house, which practically shouts that Travis, Daniel and Eva are probably inside the house too, but with some bad company and it’s probably not walkers.

 

“Fuck.” Madison curses, as she pushes Alicia and Elyza far off the windows.

 

Alicia’s heart jumps in her chest at the realisation that they were targeted. Elyza pulls her gun out of her holster and looks at her. They don’t have time to wait and think this through; they have to act as fast as possible. If the others are inside, it means that they’re hostages to people who visibly wants to _kill_ them and strategizing outside means that they’re also at the walkers’ mercy.

 

“Elyza wait!” She hears Alicia begging, but she doesn’t listen to her girlfriend because it’s a matter of life or death. There’s a sharp pain in her shoulder as she rams into the door. She thinks she should have kicked it, but then she wouldn’t be on her feet and ready to fight the shooter.

 

She barely has time to understand what is happening, but she moves her good arm – the one with her intact shoulder – to point at someone’s head. It’s a woman and she looks equally surprised. She probably wasn’t aware that they had guns too. There’s another gunshot. It scares her and she pulls the trigger tightly.

 

She drops the gun as soon as she sees the unknown woman’s limp body fall on the ground.

 


	45. Chapter 45

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It took me a while to write this down, this semester isn't easy on me because I have a shit ton of reading and studying to do.
> 
> It's going to take more time to write the chapters, because there's only five left (hooray!). Though, I have to warn you that there's going to be angst and graphic description of violence. The group isn't in a good situation. 
> 
> Hope you'll enjoy this chapter.

Elyza is freaking out, incapable of believing what she just did. Her eyes are glued to the woman’s body on the ground and she notices, with horror, the blood coming out of the bullet hole in her head. The woman had clearly no chance against Elyza. She doesn’t know if what she feels is regret or disgust towards herself, but the blonde is quickly pulled out of her thoughts when Alicia roughly shoves her on the side, avoiding just in time a bullet that someone shot at them. They have been noticed and now they have to act on it; there is no time for thinking, only for reacting.

 

Turning her head, Elyza sees two man armed with guns and regrets dropping her gun on the ground – because it would have been very useful against them. Thankfully, though, she still has her shotgun with her, but it’s in her back and there’s absolutely no time for her to remove it and start shooting at them. Time is precious. Alicia and Elyza fortunately have time to hide behind a couch.

 

“Watch out Mom!” Alicia yells as she pulls the trigger at the tallest man, seeing that her mother is still standing straight and being a very easy target for them.

 

Madison hides behind the other couch, who doesn’t provide enough protection according to her daughter. If a bullet can get through a wall, it certainly goes through a couch. Alicia sees the fear in her mother’s eyes for a second, before she regains her usual confident look and nods at Elyza, pointing her gun with her chin. The blonde only shakes her head as an answer; if Madison tried to push the weapon towards her and gets hurt, she’ll regret immediately. She prefers her shotgun if it means that she’s not getting her pistol back and there’s Madison’s life on the line.

 

“Where is Travis?” Madison almost roars.

 

They hear a chuckle and it makes Elyza’s stomach churn. How people became so bad after the outbreak, she can certainly understand; they need water and food, a roof for survival… but this, this she doesn’t understand. People making fun of the situation. There’s a dead woman on the floor, most probably one of their people, but they’re laughing because they have an advantage on them.

 

There’s a snort, then one of the men spits an answer. “Oh, Travis is dead.” Another chuckle. “I put a bullet in his head and–”

 

“MADISON!” Travis shouts from another room. “DON’T LISTEN TO THEM!”

 

“Why don’t you come out so we can talk like real adults?”

 

Alicia looks at her mother with eyes wide open, shaking negatively her head. There’s no way they make it out of there safe and there’s no way they can talk with those assholes. As far as Alicia knows, they have Travis, Daniel and Eva hostage. She doesn’t know where Nick and Ofelia are, but she hopes with all her heart that they’re not on the other side of the wall too.

 

Madison lets out a huff. “What makes you think we want to talk?”

 

There’s a silence after a moment and they can hear footsteps getting closer to them. Alicia hates that fear is making her shaking so much – she wishes that she could control herself. “You’re in no position to play little games with us, lady.”

 

“You have guns, we have guns… I say we’re equal here.” She continues.

 

Another gunshot, but this time it resonates in Elyza’s ears and she has to cover them. They’re close – too close to them. “We just want our people back, okay?” The blonde says, looking at Alicia with fear in her eyes.

 

“I am afraid that it’s no longer possible, dear.” There’s a brief pause. “Unfortunately, you killed Maria and… our boss will not be happy that you killed his girlfriend.”

 

“She shot at us, what do you think we were supposed to do?” Alicia retorts. “And you have our people.”

 

“What do you want?” Elyza asks them. “We’re gonna give it to you and then we take our separate ways.”

 

“What do we want?” One of them retorts. “Tell them what we want, Jerry.”

 

“We want meat.” Jerry answers.

 

“Sorry, we don’t have meat… but we have food.” Alicia says. “We can give it to you if you want.”

 

Elyza is not sure what they’re referring to when they’re talking about meat. Those people are definitely crazy, not a good kind of crazy, and it scares her. She figures that they’re probably capable of a lot of awful things but she’d rather not find out at all.

 

There’s another voice – a woman’s voice. “Guys, we should pack things and leave. We’ve been noticed by a horde of infected and they’re heading towards the house.” She says. “We better hurry, they’ll be there in a few minutes.”

 

They don’t hear Jerry or his acolyte’s answer. They don’t even have time to react that they see them and it takes a second before they have guns pointed at their head. It’s not the first time it happened to them, but Alicia could never get accustomed to the feeling in her guts as she realises that she’s about to _die_. She gulps down the lump in her throat and shakily drops her pistol on the ground – because that’s the reasonable thing to do. Elyza doesn’t question it, but she does the same with her shotgun. Madison still holds hers in her hand and doesn’t seem like she wants to let go of the weapon, put it is pointed towards the ground.

 

“Okay, let’s put them in the van with the others.”

 

Elyza looks at Alicia with an incredulous look. _What?_ These guys wanted to put them in a van with them? What the hell are these people, seriously?

 

“You move and we kill you.” Jerry tells them. He’s a tall guy wearing a cap and with a small dark beard. He’s probably in his mid-twenties, something like that. “It doesn’t matter if you’re dead or alive.”

 

The other man smirks at them and takes out duct tape. _Oh no, this doesn’t sound good at all_. Elyza clenches her jaw when he comes closer and kneels down to tie her up. She figures that she could knock him down easily, but she doesn’t move; Jerry has his point pointed directly at Alicia and Elyza doesn’t want her to get shot in the head because of her.

 

When he is done with Elyza, Alicia and Madison, they take all of their weapons to put it in their bags. With the weapon still pointed towards them, Jerry asked them to get up and follow him. They don’t have much choice, since Jerry’s friend is behind them. “Don’t worry, you’ll all be together in the truck.” He says, poking Madison’s back with his gun. “You’re gonna be with your dear Travis in the van.”

 

“What about the others that are with him?” Madison snarls, looking at the back of Jerry’s head, hoping that her eyes would be gun instead and that she could shoot him.

 

The woman comes in their sight again, from what she thinks is the garage. “Your friends are alive, don’t worry.” She tells Madison. “Maybe beaten up a bit, but they didn’t give us much choice.”

 

* * *

 

As soon as they entered the garage, bags were put on their head so they couldn’t see anything compromising for the other group. Alicia thinks that they were five persons; Jerry, the guy that duct taped their wrists together, and three women – including the one that shot Elyza. Speaking of her, she thinks that they decided to put her in the van with them too, which is quite repulsing to say the least.

 

As soon as they sat on the hard and cold metal of the back of the van, Madison asked for her fiancé. “Travis, are you there?”

 

“Yeah, I’m right here Maddie.” He says, letting out a sigh of relief. He heard the shooting in the living room, but he couldn’t tell if someone had been shot or not. “Are you okay?”

 

“Yeah, I think we’re all fine.” She answers. “Who’s there with you?”

 

“Eva and Daniel.”

 

There’s a brief moment of silence, which Daniel breaks. “… is Ofelia with you?”

 

“Lower your voice.” Elyza shushes him. “No, she’s not with us, I thought that somehow they ended up with you.”

 

“They’re safer than with us, right now.” Alicia murmurs, hoping that her brother and Ofelia saw or heard what happened and decided to hide. She hopes that they will not hide for too long though, since the woman said that a horde of walkers was coming towards them.

 

The doors of the van open and there’s movement – they’re getting inside. They hear someone opening the garage’s door and jogging to the vehicle, sitting and then closing the door.

 

“They must not know about Ofelia and Nick, okay?” Madison tells them quietly, hoping that they couldn’t hear them as they start the engine.

 

Alicia worries about her brother, but her mother is right; they can’t know that there’s two more people in their group. She only hopes that they’re okay and they will be following them to god knows where. With the bag over her head, she feels like she is suffocating and she jumps at every noises she hears because she can’t see a damn thing. Her wrists are hurting already because of the duct tape and she’s not in a very pleasant position either. She’ll definitely have sore muscles.

 

“Where are we going?” Eva asks them, after they hit the road. It’s bumpy and the driver makes abrupt turns. He surely got his driver’s license in a cereal box. Or he is trying to disorient them, which was already working since they had bags over their heads.

 

They hear a grunt. “Just be quiet.” One woman says. “I’ve heard enough of you for today.”

 

Eva scoffs. “You’re gonna regret kidnapping us.”

 

“Oh, you think so?” Jerry sneers.

 

She’s about to talk back at him, but Travis speaks before. “Eva, it’s enough. We should stop talking.”

 

Alicia knows that Eva’s attitude towards them is only to feel braver and not let fear get to her – but she knows that Eva is as terrified as she is. They have been kidnapped and it’s even harder to believe because they have the _whole world against them_ already. Besides her, Elyza is shaking and she wishes that she could reassure her girlfriend by putting a hand on her shoulder or linking their fingers together, but she can’t because her wrists are hurting her.

 

Someone puts music and Elyza jumps in surprise – it’s hard rock or metal, something she doesn’t know but it’s not very nice to listen. She’s only more disoriented and she wishes that she could remove the stupid bag on her head.

 

* * *

 

Alicia couldn’t tell how long it took for the car to stop, nor where they were heading to; it was a very terrifying sensation to think that their lives were in the hands of strangers who wanted their deaths. They’re probably going to suffer a lot because Elyza had apparently killed their boss’s girlfriend. It’s never a good thing to realise. She lets out a sigh. It’s hard to breathe with the bag on her head and she feels sweat running down her face and neck. Her shoulders are sore from the duct tape restraints and she wishes they never decided to follow Eva to the National Cleveland Forrest – even though encountering murderers isn’t her fault.

 

She groans when the car stops suddenly. She nearly crashed into the person in front of her, which she thinks is Daniel after hearing him speak, but she managed to regain balance. It’s nothing easy, with the bag on her head and her hands tied up. Nobody from her group is talking and all she can hear is the strangers’ muffled voices. There’s the sound of a car door opening and she understand that now is their time to get out of the vehicle.

 

Someone walks past her and removes the bag off her head. She takes a deep breath and opens her eyes; the sun is going down. She looks at every members of her group as their bag is removed and she clenches her jaw.

 

Travis is in a terrible state. It is clear he had been beaten up; there is blood, now dried, that ran down his face. He’ll probably need stitches on his forehead. He probably took a good right hook in the mouth, since his bottom lip is split. He also has two black-eyes. Daniel has a few cuts too, but his injuries are minor. They probably took pleasure in beating Travis instead of the Salvadoran man. Eva looks almost intact, but if Alicia looks closely she has a dark bruise on the side of her jaw and fingerprints around her neck. Someone tried to strangle her and Eva defended herself. They’re all a little beaten up, but everyone is there and thankfully alive. For now.

 

“Alright, you stay right here while I get the boss.” Jerry tells them, pointing his gun towards them to look even more threatening – well, it works, since they’ve been tied up, kidnapped, and blindfolded to a place they didn’t even know.

 

Elyza couldn’t tell where they are, but it looks like a big warehouse. Still, they don’t have the advantage here and she would say they are in a very compromising situation. Last time it happened was at Hillrise a few weeks ago. They all made it out alive from there, but she wouldn’t say the same about this place, not with these people.

 

The rest of Jerry’s group are out of the van, which leaves them a few seconds to talk. Travis is the one to speak up. “We can’t mess with them.” He says seriously. “They’re psychopaths or sociopaths. They don’t care if they murder us, as long as they’re powerful.”

 

“I’m probably gonna regret killing the girl.” Elyza tells them. “They’ll make me pay for it.”

 

“Listen.” Daniel pauses, looking at them for a long second. “Whatever they ask us to do, we’ll do it. No complaints. They made it clear that they don’t need us and if we want to stay alive, we need to play our cards right. We… –”

 

They hear footsteps coming towards the car and Travis shushes Daniel. He immediately stops talking. A moment later, the door opens and they see a new person, who Alicia figures is probably the boss.

 

“Tell me who killed Kimmy.” Orders the man, eyes darting at Travis because he probably thinks he was the one killing her.

 

There is a brief silence, a moment of torture according to Elyza, because Jerry seems to hesitate to tell him. He obviously fears his boss. He lets out a breath and points towards her. “That one.” Elyza gulps down nervously, because the only think she can think of is that the man is going to kill her without a second thought.

 

Elyza turns her head to look at Alicia and she can feel the tears about to spill down her cheeks. Killing the woman was only to defend herself, but because she barged into the house like she did, she put her girlfriend and Madison in danger. “I’m sorry.” She tells her, her bottom lip trembling from fear.

 

“You. You’re the one who killed Kimmy, really?” The boss asks. Elyza, of course, doesn’t answer to his question. She looks down at his feet, unable to swallow the lump of fear stuck in her throat. He scoffs like he doesn’t believe that she was capable of such violent act. “Why are you crying, honey?”

 

Elyza keeps quiet, trying not to sob, her eyes glued to the ground. “She claimed it was to defend herself.” Jerry tells him, crossing his hands on his chest. “But the girl is tougher than she looks.”

 

“She’s just a girl, barely even eighteen.”

 

Jerry shrugs. “She knows how to use a gun. The others too. She could still be dangerous.”

 

“I can barely call this dangerous.” He lets out a sigh. “Put em’ on the roof. I don’t feel like taking care of this today, not when we lost one of our own. Make sure they don’t escape, put chains around their wrists.”

 

“All of them?” Jerry wonders.

 

“Yeah. Give them food and water.” The boss orders. “I’m gonna take care of them tomorrow.”

 

* * *

 

Three days. That’s how long it takes before the boss decides to come to the roof and have a little talk with them. They were given food and water, but they were chained and weaponless. This group seems to live in a military compound or something like this. It’s well secured, of course, but it doesn’t look like there’s a lot of ways to escape from inside the walls – and none from the roof except the door they took before being chained.

 

Three days with terrible expectations. Three days with the fear that none of them will make it out of this side of hell. Three days of thinking about Ofelia and Nick, alone and probably not knowing where they were now. Three days of long exposure to the sun and to the cold temperatures of the night. On the roof, they are separated. They can see each other, but they can’t touch. It’s truly awful because Alicia would appreciate the comfort of holding her girlfriend’s hand and Elyza would probably feel less anxious if touching her too. If touching anyone of their group, in fact. Elyza is sure that Madison would not decline the comfort either.

 

It’s midday when the boss comes up to the roof, a crowbar in his left hand. Alicia doesn’t know what he’ll do with a weapon like this one, but she is sure that it’s not going to be painless. Or he wants to intimidate them.

 

He approaches them, a smug smile on his lips, looking at everyone without a word. Elyza hates this kind of man, who thinks they’re above everybody. They’ve been chained to a roof for three several days. They’ve been cold, they’ve been under the bright sun and they couldn’t shower. They had food – mostly crackers – and water, but that’s all. To be honest, anyone that would look at them would find them miserable and disgusting.

 

“Hi there. Sorry, it’s been a while since I chained you up here.” He lets out a chuckle. “I had important matters to take care of.”

 

Travis glares at him, his eyes definitely sending daggers at him. Of all of them, Travis had been in the worse state. He needs medication to treat his wounds, but of course their kidnappers wouldn’t give this to him. He did not beg for it, though. He knew first hand that they wouldn’t share with someone who tried to kill them. His injuries got infected and Elyza thinks he has fever. He was the most vulnerable of their group to the weather variations.

 

“I’m afraid I haven’t introduced myself yet.” He puts the longer end of his crowbar on the ground and holds it just like a cane. “I’m Zod.”

 

Daniel scoffs. “Zod. And you’re the leader of this group?”

 

“Apparently, I am.” He looks at the Salvadoran man and then points to the rest of the group. “Perhaps you can enlighten me on your names too.”

 

“And why would we do that?” Daniel retorts, evident anger in his eyes.

 

Zod takes a deep breath and closes his eyes for a second. “I’m not sure you know it yet, but… there’s a zombie apocalypse out there!” He claps his hands together and smiles at Daniel. “We are bound to cooperate if we want to survive. Which means we should get to know each other, right?”

 

Travis groans in displeasure. “Your group attacked us and we defended ourselves.”

 

“Ah, yes, I’m aware of this fact and I am truly sorry.” He lowers his head and nods. “Jerry has a lot of… issues, you see.”

 

Elyza doesn’t want to believe that this guys, Zod, actually talks to them just like he haven’t chained them up on the roof for the past three days nor that they were responsible for the death of his girlfriend. He seemed angry when he met them, but now, he looks unaffected or like he doesn’t care at all.

 

There’s a silence – nobody of their group willing to say anything or ask a question. Zod looks at them like he’s waiting for something, someone to talk, but it doesn’t happen. He’s uncomfortable with the silence and itches to break it. “Okay, you guys don’t talk a lot. I’m sure you have questions about this… rather awkward situation that you’re in, right?”

 

Elyza clenches her jaw when his eyes fall on her. “You, sweetie, you’re probably asking yourself what’s gonna happen, now that you killed my girlfriend, yes?” The blonde doesn’t say anything, but she doesn’t flinch, looking at him in the eyes. “Well, I have answers for you.” He smiles and Alicia gulps nervously. She doesn’t want her girlfriend to die, not when she feels they barely just got together. Zod lets out a sigh. “I’m not gonna kill you yet, you don’t have to worry. You have fight in you and we could put that to use.”

 

He winks at Elyza before turning to the rest of the group, then continues his monologue. “See, we didn’t really appreciate the loss of one of our own. I decided to let you live because I need you. And I need you to make the dirty work at my place, because that’s what I do. I use people.” He takes his crowbar in his hands and nods. “It’s easier this way, you guys understand? Though you are the larger group we’ve encountered in months… six persons is a lot to manage.”

 

His speech looks like it would never end: he is taking pleasure in teasing them. Making them worry about their situation. It’s awful. He’s probably more evil than the two men who tried to force themselves on Elyza and Alicia, a few months ago, before they even got to Hillrise.

 

“Okay, so I’m gonna be nice and ask this one more time: what’s your name?” He looks at them and now they can see that Zod is beginning to be annoyed by the silence of their group. Better not push him too much and see what he is capable of. “I know you’re Travis.” He says, pointing at Alicia’s stepfather. “But the rest… I’d like to know your names.”

 

“I’m Madison.” The older blonde says. “This is Alicia, Elyza and Eva.” She points with her chin.

 

“And the Spanish man is?”

 

“Daniel.” Madison answers before Daniel retorts something stupid to defy Zod’s words. The Salvadoran man glares at her furiously, gritting his teeth together. He had been in wars and other delicate situation before and thinks he can manage this on his own. He clearly doesn’t know how to deal with this kind of people. You can’t just expect that everything will be fine if you don’t cooperate with them.

 

“Funny, one of my men’s name is Daniel too.” He shrugs. “Nice to meet you all. I would have hoped that it would be under other circumstances, of course, but here we are.” He smiles at Daniel. “You’re going to come with me. I have an important task, just for you.”

 

“What if I don’t want to?”

 

“Well, you don’t really have a choice… you understand? We’re going to kill you if you don’t cooperate. Don’t make it hard on yourself for nothing when it can all be easy.” Zod takes out a key of his pocket and approaches him. “Listen, Daniel. We don’t know much about each other, I get it. But if you do as I say, you won’t suffer that much.”

 

“But I will suffer.” Daniel states, still glaring at the leader of the other group.

 

“Did I say that?” He asks and Alicia wants nothing more than to punch the man in his stupid face, knowing well that he wouldn’t keep his word. “Oh, maybe. For my defense, your group did try to kill mine. My girlfriend died.” Daniel rolls his eyes and Zod continues. “It’s only normal that one of your group is bound to die. And oh? That’s you, Daniel. Don’t worry, though… we won’t let you turn into a living dead.” He points the crowbar at his head. “We’re gonna eat you… then your friends…” He crouches and smirks at Daniel.

 

“Then we’re gonna find your daughter and eat her too.” 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There's going to be a trigger warning for the last chapters: cannibalism. If you're not into that, well... I'm sorry. It goes with the storyline. There is going to be graphic descriptions... but I believe that, if you read this story, you're also used to the Walking Dead universe and you'll get through the chapters easily.
> 
>  
> 
> /!\ SPOILER ALERT if you listened to the Walking Dead's premiere /!\  
> /!\ SPOILER ALERT if you listened to the Walking Dead's premiere /!\  
> /!\ SPOILER ALERT if you listened to the Walking Dead's premiere /!\  
> /!\ SPOILER ALERT if you listened to the Walking Dead's premiere /!\
> 
> Oh my poor heart. I knew that they were going to follow the comics, dammit! Yeah, they killed my favourite character so far... and poor Maggie, being pregnant isn't easy in the first place (I think?) and now Glenn is dead, all her family is dead, and she has to keep fighting against the Saviors. Wow. I really hope that Kirkman won't make Negan kill her and that she'll be the one cracking Negan's skull with Lucille to get her revenge... she kind of deserves it. Also, Abraham. I'm sorry for him, he didn't deserve to die like that. I liked him, he was the most down-to-earth character according to me. 
> 
> I hope that the premiere wasn't too hard on you guys. I already miss Glenn and Abraham.


End file.
